Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive portrait of municipal sewage sludge use for renewable and sustainable energy recovery potential in Turkey. A brief information is given on the currently established and instructing municipal wastewater treatment plants in the country for a realistic estimation of total amount of sewage sludge generated and therefore energy recovery potential. Environmental Policy Chapter within the EU negotiations, as one of the most important issues regarding adaptation to the international legislation in Turkey’s agenda, is discussed taking the sewage sludge elimination into consideration. Using an existing municipal wastewater treatment plant operating data, biogas production via anaerobic digestion process, cogenerating of electricity and hot water using biogas as fuel are described and also, three different hydrogen production methods are developed using a modest amount of power produced by the existing cogeneration system.