Abstract: Land application of sewage sludge is one of the main ways of the sludge disposal, whereas the contained organic contaminants are one of the factors limiting the sewage sludge land application. This paper summarized the concentrations of organic contaminants in urban sewage sludge, and reviewed the advances of related researches. Aiming at China national conditions, it was considered that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were the common organic contaminants in  urban sewage sludge, with the total content being generally 1-10 mg·kg^-1 and in some cases higher than 100 mg·kg^-1 due to the complicated sources. In all the sewage sludge samples of our sewage treatment plants, nonyl phenol (NP/NPE) was detected, with the concentration of 1-128 mg·kg^-1. Landscaping, afforestation, and soil amelioration could be the main ways of urban sewage sludge disposal in the future, and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nonyl phenol would be the main typical organic contaminants to be considered in realizing the safe and environmentally friendly land application of  urban sewage sludge.

Key words: Continuous flow culture, Normal bacteria, Microecology