Dr.

Abstract

Sewage sludge which poses a serious disposal problem and it’s application for fertilizers production leads to reduction in the amount of waste and improves usage of natural resources. This study is aimed at developing a non-chemical fertilizer using sewage sludge from a water treatment plant. The sludge was modified with sawdust and plantain peels and characterized. Properties determined include chemical composition, functional groups, water holding capacity, bulk density, pH, moisture content and organic matter. The moisture content (21.8-88.3%), pH (6.61 - 7.2), water holding capacity (51.88-59.67%), bulk density (5.8g/cm²- 6.1g/cm²) and total organic matters (68.54-81.65%). he FT-IR revealed the presence of alkane, alkene, alkyne, carboxylic acid and aldehyde functional groups. Macro-nutrients detected were P₂O₅ (21–32%) and K₂O (0.470–53.1%) while micro-nutrients are ZnO (1.09-4.74%), CaO (2.79-7.57%), CuO (0.091-0.48%), MgO (0.16-2.43%) and Fe₂O₃ (1.14-7.36%). The presence of heavy metal oxides present in trace amount are MnO (0.296-1.27%) and TiO₂ (0.009-1.32%). The result shows that sewage sludge from Cross River State Water Treatment Plant is suitable for the production of non-chemical fertilizer.