With the development of society

huge muddy production with silt and sludge as representatives gets rather close to the municipal refuse. Moreover

muddy materials have very complex and diverse traits and pollutants inside

resulting in a critical issue that we should dispose and utilize them economically and safely. Although the compositions of the various muddy materials are different

they share many similar physical and chemical properties. The ways to treat these materials are also consistent

including quantity reduction such as dehydration

harmless treatment like pollutant stabilization

and reclamation such as reusing after pretreatment. Furthermore

some special properties of muddy materials can also be utilized to solve certain problems. For a long time

there had scientific research and processing technology with various kinds of muddy materials in all walks of life. However

problems arose such as disunion of concept and index

isolation between technology and methods that all affected the development of basic theory and techniques. To solve these problems

this paper proposes the establishment of disciplines direction — the muddy material science and technology. We review main types and problems

hot issues encountered during the treatment process as well as several typical researches in muddy materials. The problems of the treatment with mud are analyzed and summarized.