Enhanced Stabilization of Digested Sludge During
Long-Term Storage in Anaerobic Lagoons
Irina Lukicheva1, Krishna Pagilla2*, Guanglong Tian2, Albert Cox2, Thomas Granato2
ABSTRACT: The goal of this work was to study changes in
anaerobically stored digested sludge under different lengths of storage
time to evaluate the quality of final product biosolids. The analyses of
collected data suggest the organic matter degradation occurrence in the
anaerobic environment of the lagoon approximately within the first year.
After that, the degradation becomes very slow, which is likely caused by
unfavorable environmental conditions. The performance of lagoon aging
of digested sludge was also compared to the performance of lagoon aging
of anaerobically digested and dewatered sludge. It was concluded that
both of these processes result in biosolids of comparative quality and
that the former provides more economical solution to biosolids handling
by eliminating the need for mechanical dewatering. Water Environ. Res.,
86, 291 (2014).
KEYWORDS: lagoon aging, biosolids storage, biosolids stability, Class
A biosolids.
doi:10.2175/106143013X13778144233936
Introduction
Land application of domestic wastewater sludge has been
suggested to be one of the most economical sludge disposal
methods (Metcalf and Eddy, 2002). Turning sludge into an
organic product for beneficial reuse requires additional process-
ing to conventionally used mesophilic anaerobic digestion.
Advanced treatment of anaerobically digested sludge to improve
quality and achieve Class A treatment standards often involves
high-energy demand or requires chemical addition that brings
about high cost of operations of these processes at wastewater
treatment facilities. Lagoon aging of digested sludge represents a
low-cost technology for the production of products suitable for
land application. It is considered to be a Class A process under
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA’s) Alternative
4 CFR Part 503 (U.S. EPA, 1993a). At the same time, this process
is not a commonly used practice of sludge stabilization as a post-
treatment to anaerobic digestion and, therefore, is not widely
discussed.
The majority of studies related to lagoon stabilization involve
aerobic, facultative, and anaerobic transformations of raw
wastewater in lagoons. A limited number of studies related to
lagoon aging of already digested sludges were identified.
Previous work by Tata et al. (2000) demonstrated that both
lagoon aging of dewatered and non-dewatered sludge for a
1
Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering,
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois.
2
* Monitoring and Research Department, Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, 6001 W. Pershing Road,
Cicero, IL 60611; e-mail: pagilla@iit.edu.
April 2014
minimum of 18 months helped to achieve pathogen inactivation
to levels that guarantee safe beneficial reuse. Lukicheva et al.
(2012) conducted a study of anaerobically digested and
dewatered sludge (biosolids) aging in the lagoons of the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
(District). They demonstrated that the stabilization of biosolids
in the lagoon is taking place in two different environments. In
the lagoon surface layer with developed vegetation, the biosolids
are subjected to extensive aerobic stabilization resulting in a
more advanced degree of stability. For the subsurface anaerobic
layers in the lagoon, the stabilization of organic material was
shown to take place appreciably within the first year and at a
very slow rate thereafter. The authors suggested that the main
reason for this was nonfavorable environmental conditions for
biodegradation in the lagoon subsurface anaerobic layers. Along
with lagoon aging of mechanically dewatered biosolids, called
high-solids sludge processing train (SPT), the District operates
lagoon aging of non-dewatered biosolids, called low-solids SPT.
Although environmental conditions for the lagoons of both SPTs
are similar, higher moisture content in the sludge of low-solids
SPT is hypothesized to result in enhanced stabilization caused by
anaerobic processes. Lay et al. (1997) showed that moisture
content was an important environmental factor for sludge
digestion and methane production, providing a medium for
nutrients needed for biological processes and supporting
diffusion of substrates to bacterial sites.
Although both low-solids and high-solids SPT lagoon-aging
processes are simultaneously practiced at the District, lagoons of
low-solids SPTs serve not only stabilization purposes but also
achieve sludge dewatering, thus eliminating the need for energy
and chemicals consumption associated with mechanical dewa-
tering. On the other hand, because of the higher moisture
content of sludge in low-solids SPT lagoons, the filling time of
the lagoons is longer than that of the high-solids SPT lagoons,
resulting in the higher land area requirement.
This study was aimed at tracking changes of properties in
non-dewatered sludge during long-term lagoon aging to
evaluate the stability level of final product in terms of volatile
solids, oxygen uptake rate, and soluble protein concentrations.
All the field work was carried out at the sludge aging lagoons of
the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant located in the vicinity of
Chicago, Illinois. The results obtained in this study allowed the
comparison between lagoon aging of mechanically dewatered
and non-dewatered sludge in terms of final biosolids quality.
Materials and Methods
Lagoons. Low-solids SPT at the District consists of a
mesophilic anaerobic digestion with solids retention time of
291
Lukicheva et al.

Table 1—Main characteristics of low-solids lagoons at the District sampled in October 2009.
Lagoon Dimensions Start of End of Age of solids during sampling Lagoon sludge
number (length/width/ depth) (m) filling filling (months since last filling) surface

15 410/100/6 (sludge depth 0.5 m) July 04 February 08 18 Almost outloaded

17 260/105/2 December 04 November 08 11 Scum cover
19 410/77/6 November 08 Current NA Supernatant

about 20 days followed by lagoon aging of minimum 1.5 years
and air-drying of resulting biosolids on the paved air-drying beds
until biosolids reach 60% total solids content.
Three low-solids lagoons were sampled at the Calumet Water
Reclamation Plant: Lagoon 15, Lagoon 17, and Lagoon 19. As
Table 1 shows, Lagoon 15 was almost outloaded at the time of
sampling in October 2009.
Lagoon 15 is not discussed as extensively as Lagoons 17 and
19 because the samples from the lagoon were obtained at the
end of the outloading period and represent composite samples
of all the remaining lagoon biosolids.
Sampling Procedures. Biosolids are loaded into the lagoon
from one side, while the supernatant is drained out from the
opposite side. Digested sludge at 3% total solids that is loaded
into the lagoon behaves like liquid; thus, it was assumed that
each load is distributed across the area of the lagoon on top of
the previously loaded layer with minimum mixing. Because of
this assumption, and the difficulty of access to the lagoons along
the sides, sampling was performed by the inlet and the drainage
sides in the corner areas for Lagoons 17 and 19. Two depth
profiles were considered replicates for each of the sides. Each
sampling point was located approximately 8 to 10 m from the
sides of the lagoon.
Biosolids were sampled with a Multisampler core sampler
(Eijkelkamp, Giesbeek, Netherlands). The sampler was injected
to the lagoon by the sampling crew from the suspended crane
workbox. To obtain the most representative sample, three cores
were taken at each depth of the sampling point to form one
composite sample per depth. Sampling was performed at five
depths. Because of the difference in the total depth of biosolids
for Lagoon 17 and Lagoon 19, the depth intervals of sampling
were chosen accordingly (Table 2). The sampling campaign took
place in October 2009. Lagoon 15 was sampled twice from the
truck that was used to transport biosolids just taken out of the
lagoon.
To evaluate changes in biosolids properties during lagoon
aging, the initial values of digested sludge that was pumped into
the lagoons were obtained from Calumet Water Reclamation
Plant operating reports for 2008 and 2009 (Table 3). Because
lagoon loading was taking place in stages and it is not possible to
only filter the data by the time the lagoons of interest were
Table 2—Depth intervals of sampling for Lagoons 17 and 19.
Depth interval Lagoon 17 Lagoon 19
D1 0 to 0.15 m 0 to 1.2 m
D2 0.15 to 0.45 m 1.2 to 2.45 m
D3 0.45 to 0.75 m 2.45 to 3.65 m
D4 0.75 to 1.35 m 3.65 to 4.9 m
D5 1.35-m bottom 4.9-m bottom
(approximately 2 m) (approximately 6 m)
loaded, the average value for volatile solids after digestion was
calculated over 1 year of facility operations. Other parameters
were determined from analyses of digested sludge sampled at the
Calumet Water Reclamation Plant.
Sample Handling and Storage. All biosolids lagoon samples
were transferred on ice to the laboratory and stored at 4 8C in a
refrigerator until analyses. Approximately 200 g of each sample
were air-dried and ground for analyses that required dry
samples.
Sample Characterization. Total solids and volatile solids
analyses were conducted according to Standard Methods
(APHA et al., 2005). The percent (%) of volatile solids reduction
(VSR) was calculated using the following equation:
 1
0
VSL
ð100%  VSDG Þ* 100%VS L
VSR ¼ @1  A*100% ð1Þ
VSDG
Where
VS ¼ percentage of total solids in the sample,
DG ¼ digested sludge, and
L ¼ lagoon-aged biosolids.
The pH was measured in the suspension after centrifuging
biosolids samples. The total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) was
determined by the Kjeldahl digestion method using colorimetric
analysis. Ammonia-N and nitrate plus nitrite-N were deter-
mined in a water extraction using colorimetric analyses
according to U.S. EPA methods 350.1 and 353.2, respectively
(U.S. EPA, 1993b). All the analyses were performed in duplicates.
To measure oxygen uptake of biosolids, samples were
suspended in distilled water at 1% total solids slurry of
approximately 1000 mL. The slurry was mixed with the
homogenizer for 2 minutes. The oxygen uptake of the slurry
was measured using a BI-1000 Electrolytic Respirometer
(BioScience Inc., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) at T ¼ 25 8C and
an oxygen generation rate of 40 mg/h. Triplicate analyses were
performed for each sample. The tests were run for 22 hours.
Accumulated oxygen uptake after 20 hours (ACCOU20) was
chosen for samples comparison.
Water soluble protein content was measured using the Lowry
et al. (1951) method, as described by Frølund et al. (1996), using
bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a standard. Calibration was
performed in the range of 0 to 0.5 mg BSA/L. Lerch et al. (1993)
protein water extraction methodology was modified as follows: 5
g of biosolids sample was added to distilled water to make up 50
mL of final volume. The suspension was mixed for 2 hours using
a magnetic stirrer and centrifuged at 3000 g for 25 minutes at 5
8C (the centrifugation parameters were chosen according to Hall
et al. [1996]). As part of the Lowry et al. (1951) method, protein
concentrations of the formed supernatant were determined from

292 Water Environment Research, Volume 86, Number 4

 Lukicheva et al.

Table 3—Average values of analyses of digested sludge loaded Table 4—Average values of analyses of biosolids taken out of the
into low-solids lagoons at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant. Lagoon 15 at the end of the outloading period.
Parameter Average value Parameter Average value
a
Total solids (%) 2.8 Total solids (%) 16
Volatile solids (% total solids) 50.5a Volatile solids (% total solids) 34
pH 8.0b pH 7.2
Ammonia-N (mg/g) 10b Ammonia-N (mg/g) 4.6
Nitrate/nitrite- N (mg/g) ,0.05b Nitrate/nitrite-N (mg/g) ,0.05
TKN (% total solids) 4.6b TKN (% total solids) 2
ACCOU20 (mgO2/g) 35b ACCOU20 (mg O2/g) 9
Soluble protein (mg BSA equivalent/g) 36b Soluble protein (mg BSA equivalent/g) 9
a
Data from the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant reports.
b
Average values for samples of digested sludge. performed when sludge was being loaded and no drainage water
was taken out of the lagoon).
absorbance at 750 nm. The analyses were performed in The difference in the sludge total solids profiles at two sides of
triplicate. loading Lagoon 19 are most likely attributed to the interchang-
ing periods of sludge loading and water being drained out. The
Results and Discussion difference in total solids content for sludge below 3.65 m from
Changes taking place in sludge during lagoon aging at various the surface (Figure 1A) can be explained by the differential
lengths of time and stages in lagoon operations are discussed in settling of particles along the length of the lagoon. Heavier and
this section. larger particles are settled first at the feed side, and lighter
Sludge Dewatering in the Lagoon. The dewatering proce- particles are carried further along the lagoon. A similar trend
dure follows a similar pattern for both lagoons studied. Initial was observed by Nelson et al. (2004). This phenomenon is
changes in total solids content take place during loading of the demonstrated better for Lagoon 19, most likely because of its
lagoon and, in this study, are represented by Lagoon 19. As higher length-to-width ratio and the fact that sampling was
demonstrated in Figure 1A, on the loading side of Lagoon 19, performed as the lagoon was loading.
total solids content increases from the initial 3% total solids in During the lagoon aging stage, which is represented by
digested sludge to 4 to 6% total solids in sludge from the upper Lagoon 17, there is no additional sludge loaded into the lagoon,
and only clear supernatant from the top of the lagoon is taken
layers of the lagoon (0- to 3.65-m depths) and then to the
out from the water draining side. During this period, the lagoon
bottom layers, where total solids content is as high as 8 to 10 %
is fully loaded and already settled sludge is being further
total solids. On the decanting side of the loading lagoon, total
compacted. As Figure 1B shows, drainage of supernatant only
solids content in sludge throughout the entire depth profile
from one side of the lagoon caused total solids concentrations in
remained approximately 6% total solids (note that sampling was
sludge to be lower on that side. Figure 1B also demonstrates that
solids concentrations are similar along the entire depth profiles
at each of the sides of the lagoon, with the exception of the
increase in total solids in the top 0.15 m caused by surface
evaporation. Eventually, after the aging period is over, sludge is
expected to be dewatered to approximately 12 to 16% total
solids, as it was shown for Lagoon 15 (Table 4).
Overall, compared to the mechanically dewatered sludge, low-
solids SPT lagoon dewatering processes are not capable of
achieving biosolids moisture content reduction to as high as 22
to 24% total solids that is achieved through centrifuge
dewatering in high-solids SPT. Because of this difference, further
drying requires longer time and more extensive drying area for
aged biosolids taken out of low-solids SPT lagoons compared to
that of high-solids SPT lagoons. In addition, higher lagoon
capacity is needed for non-dewatered sludge aging.
Stabilization of Biosolids During Lagoon Aging. Stabiliza-
tion of sludge in low-solids lagoons proceeds predominantly in
anaerobic environments. This attribute is different for the lagoon
aging of dewatered biosolids described by Lukicheva et al.
(2012), where stabilization in the lagoon subsurface layers was
assumed to be taking place in an anaerobic environment while
the surface layer covered with vegetation was aerobic. In the case
of the low-solids lagoons studied herein, the depth profiles of
Figure 1—Total solids and pH depth profiles for filling Lagoon 19 TKN and ammonia-N (Figure 2) did not indicate the distinctive
(A) and aging Lagoon 17 (B). surface layer where ammonia is aerobically oxidized to nitrate.

April 2014 293

Lukicheva et al.
Figure 2—Total Kjeldahl nitrogen and ammonia-N depth profiles
for Lagoon 19 (A) and Lagoon 17 (B).
Nitrate/nitrite concentrations were negligible in all of the
samples obtained. Figure 1 shows that the pH profile for both
lagoons studied is consistent throughout the entire depth of the
lagoons. Moreover, none of the sampled lagoons had a surface
vegetative layer present (Table 1).
It was hypothesized that, because of the liquid behavior of
sludge loaded into the lagoon, each load of new sludge gets
spread evenly over the entire area of the lagoon with minimum
mixing with underlying layers, thus resulting in homogeneous
stratification over the lagoon area. However, volatile solids
Figure 3—Volatile solids, ACCOU20, and soluble protein depth profiles for Lagoon 19 (A) and Lagoon 17 (B).
294
profiles in the sludge of Lagoon 19 shown in Figure 3A were
similar for both sides of the lagoon only for the top 3.65 m of the
depth profiles (49 to 51% total solids). On the loading side of the
lagoon, sludge at a depth below 3.65 m had lower volatile solids
at about 42 to 45% total solids compared to sludge at the same
depth on the draining side, where volatile solids remained 49 to
51% total solids. A similar pattern was also noticed for TKN
(Figure 2A). This difference could be related to the difference in
total solids levels at the loading and water draining sides, which
were described previously, and explained by the initial settling of
particulate material at the inlet side of the lagoon. Consequently,
the age of sludge by the inlet could be expected to be higher
compared to the age of settled sludge by the outlet. Therefore,
during the loading period, the sludge from the loading side of
the low-solids SPT lagoons is suspected to have a higher degree
of stabilization compared to the water draining side.
For the aging Lagoon 17, depth profiles of all the parameters
did not indicate any differences between loading and water-
draining sides (Figure 3B). Moreover, although the difference in
the age of the sludge in Lagoon 17 can be as much as 4 years
(Table 1), the analyses of the biodegradability parameters such as
volatile solids, ACCOU20, and soluble protein did not indicate
significant differences along the depths.
Homogeneity of stabilization levels within the aging lagoon
combined with the initial differences in stability levels during the
filling stage demonstrated for Lagoon 19 brought up the finding
that lagoon anaerobic processes of both low-solids and high-
solids SPTs display similar patterns. As in the previous study by
Lukicheva et al. (2012), current work also demonstrated that the
stabilization processes are taking place in the lagoon within
approximately the first year of aging. After the initial
stabilization, the processes become very slow, most likely
because of unfavorable conditions for further anaerobic
biological degradation.
Water Environment Research, Volume 86, Number 4

Based on the study of biosolids properties from aging Lagoon
17, it is hypothesized that the limits to biological stabilization of
sludge in the environmental conditions of the lagoons studied lie
between 44 and 46% total solids in terms of volatile solids. This
responds to VSR after the aging period from 15 to 21%, which
are values similar to the VSR for high-solids lagoon aging
(Lukicheva et al., 2012).
A similar trend in stabilization of sludge is also observed for
other biodegradability parameters such as oxygen uptake and
soluble protein concentrations. Lagoon processing resulted in
the reduction of ACCOU20 from 35 mg O2/g in digested sludge
to an average of 15 mg O2/g in aged sludge of Lagoon 17. The
ACCOU20 of biosolids from Lagoon 15 was about 9 mg O2/g. In
terms of soluble protein content, lagoon aging helps achieve a
reduction from 36 mg BSA equivalent/g in digested sludge to
anywhere between 10 to 18 mg BSA equivalent/g after aging.
The results of the study demonstrated the similarities in
stabilization processes of non-dewatered and dewatered sludge
in the lagoon anaerobic environment. These processes result in
the equal quality of final biosolids both in terms of the reduction
of pathogens (Tata et al., 2003) and the level of biosolids stability
achieved (in this study). At the same time, lagoon aging of non-
dewatered digested sludge significantly reduces the facility
energy demand required for dewatering and eliminates the need
for chemical conditioning.
Conclusions
Analyses of sludge characteristics in the lagoon profiles
suggested that degradation of organic matter in non-dewatered
digested sludge lagoons takes place within the first year of aging
and at a very slow rate thereafter. This behavior was similar to
the lagoon degradation pattern of digested and dewatered
biosolids. Besides the stabilization function, aging lagoons for
non-dewatered digested sludge were demonstrated to serve the
dewatering function that allows them to reduce the moisture
content in the final biosolids product up to 16% total solids.
Because non-dewatered digested sludge lagoon aging was shown
to result in similar final biosolids quality as for the dewatered
digested sludge, the process appears to be a more economical
solution for the same degree of treatment.
Acknowledgments
Financial support for this research was provided by the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
The authors would also like to thank District’s Maintenance and
Operations (M&O) Department for providing lagoon informa-
tion, M&O’s Master Mechanics Section for providing heavy
equipment for sampling operation in lagoons, and the personnel
of the Analytical Laboratory Division and the Environmental
April 2014
Lukicheva et al.
Monitoring and Research Division for conducting some of the
analyses and for providing biosolids monitoring data of the
initial volatile solids contents in biosolids. The authors are also
grateful to the Wastewater Section for providing respirometers
used in this research.
Submitted for publication June 25, 2012; accepted for
publication April 10, 2013.
References
American Public Health Association; American Water Works Associa-
tion; Water Environment Federation (2005) Standard Methods for
the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 21st ed.; American
Public Health Association: Washington, D.C.
Frølund, B.; Palmgren, R.; Keiding, K.; Nielsen, P. H. (1996) Extraction of
Extracellular Polymers from Activated Sludge Using a Cation
Exchange Resin. Water Res., 30 (8), 1749–1758.
Lay, J.; Li, Y.; Noike, T. (1997) Influences of pH and Moisture Content on
the Methane Production in High-Solids Sludge Digestion. Water
Res., 31 (6), 1518–1524.
Lerch, R. N.; Barbarick, K. A.; Azari, P.; Sommers, L. E.; Westfall, D. G.
(1993) Sewage Sludge Proteins: I. Extraction Methodology. J.
Environ. Qual., 22, 620–624.
Lowry, O. H.; Rosebrough, N. J.; Farr, A. L.; Randall, R. J. (1951) Protein
Measurement with the Folin Phenol Reagent. J. Biol. Chem., 193 (1),
265–275.
Lukicheva, I.; Pagilla, K.; Tian, G.; Cox, A.; Granato, T. (2012) Anaerobic
and Aerobic Transformations Affecting Stability of Dewatered
Sludge during Long-Term Storage in a Lagoon. Water Environ. Res.,
84 (1), 17–24.
Metcalf and Eddy, Inc. (2002) Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and
Reuse, 4th ed.; Tchobanoglous, G.; Burton, F.; Stensel, H., Eds.;
McGraw-Hill: New York.
Nelson, K. L.; Cisneros, B. J.; Tchobanoglous, G.; Darby, J. L. (2004)
Sludge Accumulation, Characteristics, and Pathogen Inactivation in
Four Primary Waste Stabilization Ponds in Central Mexico. Water
Res., 38 (1), 111–127.
Tata, P.; Lue-Hing, C.; Bertucci, J. J.; Sedita, S. J.; Knafl, G. J. (2000) Class
A Biosolids Production by a Low-Cost Conventional Technology.
Water Environ. Res., 72 (4), 413–422.
Tata, P.; Lue-Hing, C.; Sawyer, B.; Lanyon, R.; Farnan, J. C. (2003) How
Chicago Obtained and Will Benefit from Site-Specific PFRP
Certification. Proceedings of the 76th Annual Water Environment
Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference [CD-ROM]; Los
Angeles, California, Oct 11–15; pp 422–432.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1993a) 40 CFR Part 503:
Standards for the Use and Disposal of Sewage Sludge. Fed. Regist.,
58, 9248.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1993b) U.S. EPA Methods for the
Determination of Inorganic Substances in Environmental Samples;
EPA-600/R-23-100; U.S. Environmental Protection Association:
Cincinnati, Ohio.
295