Addressing Challenges of Industrial Biosolids Reuse in Qatar to Enhance Agriculture Industry

Qatar is an extreme arid region with poor soil which makes agriculture activity impossible without heavy energy footprint to produce water and artificial fertilizers. At the same time, Qatar has abundance of natural gas that enables large petrochemical activity. Integration of industrial waste and by-products, such as biosolids, could help reduce emissions and enhance the agriculture sector’s resilience by providing an alternative feedstock. Biosolids from industrial cities are currently disposed in landfills due to strict environmental regulations. This work addresses the regulatory limitations that are required to be put in place for the change in the application of the biosolids from land disposal to agricultural purposes. The agricultural focus remains within cash crops that grow in arid and semi-arid regions and the benefits of the usage of biosolids together with the problems associated with its usage are discussed. The paper includes a case study analysis of the composition of biosolids from Shell, Qatar in comparison to the guidelines and limitations from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other countries. Variant treatment methods of bio sludge in general and specific treatment methods of heavy metals if they fail to comply with the regulatory limitations are discussed. The analysis is carried though an optimization model which takes the total cost of treatment, use and industrial crops growth and revenue from biosolids by-products.