Industrial ash plus manure waste makes a safe soil substitute
Fan Y, Gu Y, Yan K, Guo Y
Soil Health
If you've ever wondered what happens to the ash-like leftovers from power plants and the manure runoff from livestock farms, this shows both can be combined into a substrate that grew healthier ryegrass than either waste alone.
Scientists took leftover ash from coal gasification plants and used it like a sponge to soak up dissolved organic material from smelly livestock wastewater. Instead of throwing away the used-up ash, they mixed it with manure byproduct to create a new soil-like material. When they planted ryegrass in it, the grass grew bigger, photosynthesized better, and showed no signs of stress or toxicity compared to using the raw waste materials on their own.
Key Findings
Coal gasification slag removed 35% of dissolved organic matter from livestock wastewater via pore-filling and surface complexation, with a 2:1 fine-to-coarse slag ratio maximizing capture.
Blending the DOM-loaded slag with livestock manure digestate at an 8:2 ratio produced a substrate with better structural stability, nutrient retention, and humification than raw materials.
Greenhouse trials with ryegrass showed significantly improved biomass, photosynthetic activity, and oxidative stress tolerance, with no detectable phytotoxicity.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers turned two problem wastes, coal gasification slag and livestock manure runoff, into a single soil-like growing substrate that helped ryegrass grow bigger and healthier with no toxic effects.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Integrated upcycling of coal gasification slag and livestock waste: From dissolved organic matter recovery to soil-like substrate formulation.
The concurrent accumulation of industrial solid residues and livestock waste presents a persistent environmental challenge, underscoring the need for circular economy strategies that integrate co-t...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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