Wastewater sewage sludge cake from textile manufacturing was evaluated by soil incubation experiments and a greenhouse experiment for use as a soil amendment to provide crop N. Although the sludge had 96% of N in organic combination, 20% of total sludge N was released to soil as mineral N over 28 days. N mineralization from the sludge was indistinguishable from that seen for alfalfa shoot in parallel incubations. However, nitrification inhibition was seen for the alfalfa amendment. Soil respiration was low for the sludge treatments compared to the alfalfa treatments, suggesting that carbon substrates in the sludge were less easily broken down. A second incubation experiment indicated that fine fragmentation of the sludge is not necessary to ensure mineralization proceeds. In a greenhouse experiment, sludge N was approximately 25% as available to Zea mays L. as NH4NO3. The textile manufacturing sludge offered potential to offset N fertilizer requirement. 1. Introduction Sewage sludges are generated by the treatment of wastewater streams in municipal and industrial installations [1]. The composition of these materials varies considerably. Sewage sludge from water treatment plants in Ontario, Canada, were reported [2] to have 4%–8% solids by mass ( ), whereas mechanically dewatered sludge normally contains up to 30% solids by mass [3]. A comparison of aerobic sewage sludges [4] gave ranges of values for total N from 5–76？g？kg？1 ( ) and NH4–N from 0.03–11.3？g？kg？1 ( ). Corresponding ranges given by [5] are organic N from 13–65？g？kg？1 and NH4–N from 0.4–42.8？g？kg？1 ( ). More than 50% of sewage sludge is applied to land for disposal [6], and sludge is often considered for use on farmland to supply N for crops [7–10]. N-release varies both within and among sludge materials. Between 4 and 48% of organic N was mineralized from anaerobically digested municipal sewage sludge in a soil incubation lasting 16 weeks [11]. Similarly, between 0% and 59% of organic N was mineralized over 58–74 days of incubation with soil in the laboratory for 16 municipal sludges [5]. Field trials also show variability. In the first year after application, 55% of organic N in liquid sludge from secondary municipal sewage treatment was mineralized in fields of corn (Zea mays L.) and hay [12]. In one season, 16% of applied N in the form of swine lagoon sludge was recovered in grass harvested, with 24% recovered from municipal sludge in a similar trial [13]. Sludge from lagoon sources was also found elsewhere to have less plant-available N than sludge from nonlagoon sources [14]. Residual
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