org
EnhancingtheGrowthofPlantsonCoal
WasteUsingaBiologicalFertilizer
PeterJ.Leggo
DepartmentofEarthSciences,UniversityofCambridge,DowningStreet,CambridgeCB23EQ,UK.
pjl46@cam.ac.uk
Abstract
Introduction
Theuseofchemicalfertilisers,overthelast60ormore
yearshasbeenofgreatbenefitinkeepingworldfood
crop supply ahead of population growth. However,
this achievement has not been without a cost to soil
health and the environment. It is commonly found
that natural nitrification has been reduced to a very
low level in the arable soils of developed countries.
Current agricultural practice relies heavily on the
annualuseofinorganicfertilizerstoprovideeconomic
crops.Itisnowknownthatwithoutaregularinputof
organic matter (OM) the over use of nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium (NPK) fertilizers causes
nutrient limited microbes to rapidly decompose the
soilOMwhich,inturn,canleadtoastructurelesssoil
with less capacity to hold water; causing greater
runoff and groundwater pollution, (Ball, 2006). In
addition to the high energy costs of the HaberBosch
process for producing ammonia from atmospheric
nitrogen,thesourceofnaturalphosphateisbecoming
less readily available. The organozeolitic biofertilizer
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TABLE1.CHEMICALANALYSISOFCOALWASTEFROMCALVERTON
COLLIERY,NOTTINGHAMSHIRE,UK
__________________________________________________________
Element(mg/kg)S.E.(n=6)
____________________________________________________________
B
Na Mg
Al Si
42.82.1555112553202268381962506823842
P
SKCa Ti
1934617586346462528 5740627103474
Cr
Mn
Fe
Co Ni
31.33.030626111399839.460.8032.52.6
Cu
Zn As
Se Rb
37.53.2242.517.21.6
<2.0 34.82.8
Mo
Cd
Cs
Ba Pb
3.20.310.160.022.380.211471322.452.0
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WEIGHTS.LEAVESANDSTEMS.
_______________________________________________________
Substrate
AveragePlantWt(g)
_______________________________________________________
Brassicanapus2kgsubstrates,2plantsperpot,triplicatesamples
1.CoalWaste+Biofertilizer+Lime 52.925.39
2.CoalWaste+GardenSoil+PoultryManure 50.588.02
+ActivatedCharcoal
49.837.29
3.CoalWaste+BiofertilizerLime
4.CoalWaste+PoultryManure
31.013.50
5.GardenSoil
28.523.77
6.CoalWaste+ZeoliticTuff
24.161.92
7.GardenSoil+PoultryManure
23.593.94
8CoalWaste+GardenSoil+ZeoliticTuff
9.160.58
2.860.31
9.CoalWaste
________________________________________________________
AtharvestZeamaysgrowninamendedcoalwastehad
ears, of average weight 167.9 5.8 g whereas those
from plants grown in unamended coal waste had an
average weight of 5.04 0.26 g, see Figure 1. A
dramaticdifferenceisalsoobservedinthecaseofBeta
vulgaris, see Figure 2. Large differences were also
found in the seed weight of Brassicanapus and Linum
usitatissimum which again demonstrates the growth
enhancement of plants cultivated in the biofertilizer
amendedcoalwaste,seeTable2.
TABLE2.PLANTDRYWEIGHTS:LEAVESANDSTEMS,OILSEED,CORN.
EARSANDBEETTUBERS.
FIG.1ZEAMAYSEARSATMATURITY.THREEREPLICATE
EARSFROMPLANTSGROWNINCOALWASTESHOWN
ABOVETHOSEGROWNINCOALWASTEAMENDEDWITH
THEBIOFERTILIZER.
TABLE3.EXTENDEDCONTROLEXPERIMENTUSINGB.NAPUS.DRY
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GardenSoil+PoultryManure+ActivatedCharcoal.(3)
Coal Waste + Biofertilizer Lime. (4). Coal Waste +
Poultry Manure. (5) Garden Soil. (6) Coal Waste +
Zeolitic Tuff. (7) Garden Spoil + Poultry Manure. (8)
Coal Waste + Garden Soil + Zeolitic Tuff. (9) Coal
Waste.
substratesinordertoquantifytheeffectofthemanure
component. It was also desirable to investigate the
effect of the zeolite component without the organic
material and to observe the difference made by
adjusting the pore water pH to a value of close to 6.
Again, it was thought that the substitution of the
zeolitictuffwithanalternativemicroporousmaterial
that adsorbs ammonium ions would be of
considerableinterest.Activatedcarbonwaschosenfor
thispurpose.Theplantsweregerminatedwithinafew
days and grown for a period of 160 days in
greenhouseconditionsidenticaltothoseoftheearlier
experiment.Theshootdryweightsoftheseplantsare
given in Table 3 and the contrast of the effects of the
differentsubstratesisshownasahistograminFigure
3.
FIG..2B.VULGARIATUBERSATMATURITY.THREE
REPLICATETUBERSFROMPLANTSGROWNINCOALWASTE
SHOWNBELOWTHOSEGROWNIN.AMENDEDCOALWASTE.
Theresultoftheextendedcontrolexperiment,Figure
3, sheds light on some important features. B.napus in
substrates with and without the addition of lime,
substrates (1) and (3) show little difference in shoot
dryweight.AsthepHofthecoalporewaterisknown
to be very close to 4.0, it is unlikely that the
ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) would function
wellwithouttheadditionoflimetoraisethepHofthe
substrateabove6.0.Itissuggested,inthelightofour
current research, that the substrate without the lime
addition (3) ammonium oxidizing archaea (AOA),
someofwhichhavebeenfoundtofunctionatapHof
4.5, (GubryRangin et.al., 2010) might maintain the
levelofnitrification.Theplantsgrowninsubstrate(2)
in which activated carbon is substituted for zeolitic
tuff show no difference in dry weight, within
experimentalerror,withthosegrowninsubstrates(1)
and (3). Powdered activated carbon is a microporous
materialthatisknowntoadsorbammoniumionsand
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
Substrates
FIG.3EXTENDEDCONTROLEXPERIMENTSUSINGB.NAPUS.;
AVERAGEDRYWEIGHT(G),2KGSUBSTRATES2PLANTSPER
POT,TRIPLICATESAMPLES
(1)CoalWaste+Biofertilizer+Lime.(2)CoalWaste+
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biofertilizer,however,inawetormoistsubstrate,the
transfer of NH4+ ions would be expected to undergo
slow release during ionexchange by K+ (Ming and
Allen2001).
Astudyofcomposting,inthepresentcontext,hasyet
tobemadebutitwouldappearfromworkdonewith
sewage sludge that the bulk of ammonia emitted
occurs in the first week of composting using a forced
airsystem(WitterandLopezReal1988).Thissupports
the present work in that the transport of NH4+ ions
was found to occur over a relatively short period. In
thisrespect,itwouldappearthatthebiofertilizer,soon
afterpreparation,couldbeaddedtoaplantsubstrate
as then the transfer of NH4+ ions would take place in
situ,withoutaprolongedcompostingperiod.
Conclusions
Thisstudyhasshownthatinusinganorganozeolitic
biofertilizerplantsusedasbiofuels,canbegrownand
sustained on coal waste. On reaching maturity, these
plants show a greatly enhanced growth relative to
those grown on unamended coal waste. By
comparingthedryweightsoftheplantsgrowninthe
extended control experiment, it is found that using
organicwastewithoutthezeolitecomponentresultsin
45%ofthatofplantsgrownintheamendedsubstrates.
Asimilarresultwasfoundwhensubstratescontaining
zeolitictuffandnoorganicwastewereinvestigated.In
thisinstance,theplantshadanaveragedryweightsof
some 46% of those in substrates amended with the
biofertilizer. It was therefore found that the presence
ofbothcomponentsofthebiofertilizerisessentialfor
it to sponsor nitrification to a degree that produces
considerableplantenhancement.Ashypothesised,the
microbiological activity in the amended substrates
promotesnitrificationwhilstsupplyinghydrogenions
which protonate the pore water, which in turn
dissociates cations from the substrate. A plant grown
in such an environment then has a free choice of
cations, controlled by ionhomeostasis, which
producesahealthyplant.
The fact that activated carbon, when used to replace
natural zeolite, had a similar effect on stimulating
growth focuses attention on the effect of surface
absorption in soil amendments. Considering the fact
that activated carbon has a high porosity which
results in a very large surface area that can absorb
NH4+ ions, it is not surprising that this material can
behave similarly to natural zeolite. Considering other
materials such as pillared clays and layered double
InternationalJournalofEnvironmentandResourcr(IJER)Volume2Issue3,August2013www.ijer.org
Edited
D.L.
Bish,
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Ming,
MineralogicalSocietyofAmerica,WashintonD.C(2001),
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E. Witter, and J. LopezReal, Nitrogen losses during the
composting of sewage sludge and the effectiveness of
clay soil, zeolites and compost in adsorbing the
volatilized ammonia, Biological wastes, 23, 279294
((1988).
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