Speciation of Heavy Metals in Sewage Sludge and Sludge-Amended Soil

Abstract

The presence of heavy metals in sewage sludge restricts their agricultural use. Sequential extraction procedures may provide an assessment of the mobility of these elements in sludge and sludge-amended soil, and may help to predict the release of metals in soil solution. Nevertheless, the “phases” in which an element occurs are operationally defined and it is necessary to standardize a procedure in order to allow the comparison of result from different laboratories.