Fatty oil and acids, glycerol, glycols, lactic acid, urea, fertilizer, carbohydrates, ethanol are recovered or produced from sewer sludge by the process of concentrating and filtering out the solid sewer sludge, hydrolysis of the cellulose in the sewer sludge by an alkali or acid catalyst to carbohydrates, fermentation of the carbohydrates to produce ethanol, then recover the ethanol by distillation or membrane technology. The glycerol, glycols and lactic acids are recovered by membrane technology. The polysacchride carbohydrates are hydrolyzed to monosacchrides then fermented to alcohol. The unsoluble sewer sludge and the salts such as ammonium sulfate, nitrogen containing compounds and urea from the aqueous solution left after the ethanol is distilled off are mixed, dried and utilized as fertilizer.