The article describes problems related to intensification of energy production at a sewage treatment plant. The authors analyze anaerobic co-digestion of sludge from a water treatment plant and sewage treatment plant. The authors proposed a methodology of the research and analyzed the preliminary results, which showed that co-digestion of sewage and water sludge enhanced biogas production. The authors hope that the results of the study will provide a basis for development of methodology for sludge control and disposal.

Throughout the world, considerable quantities of water treatment sludge (WTS) and sewage sludge (SS) are produced as waste. This study assessed in the laboratory, the possibility to use both waste products when they are incorporated as filler at 1% with relation to the total mass of a hot mix asphalt - HMA. To this end, both waste products were initially reduced to ash through a calcination process. Resistance tests under monotonic load (Marshall and indirect tension tests), and cyclic load (resilient modulus test) were applied on mixes that contained WTS and SS. Besides, moisture damage (modified Lotmman test), and abrasion (Cantabro) resistance were assessed. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed in order to verify if the results are statically equal or not to those of the control HMA. As a general conclusion, it is reported that both materials show a resistance increase under monotonic load and higher stiffness under cyclic load (cohesion) when they are incorporated into the mix as filler despite the fact that the asphalt content used was less than the control mix. However, some problems are observed associated with moisture damage resistance, and friction wear (adherence).