Abattoir residues as nutrient resources: Nitrogen recycling with bone chars and biogas digestates.

Abattoirs produce by-products that may become valuable resources for nutrient recycling and energy generation by including pyrolysis and biogas production in the value creation chain. This study investigated the potential of bone chars as sorbents for ammonium in order to produce a soil amendment useful for fertilizing purposes. Ammonium enriched from the digestate by membrane distillation or from pure ammonium sulphate solutions accommodated the nitrogen sorption to the bone chars. The plant availability of the sorbed nitrogen was studied by a standardized short-term plant test with rye (Secale cereale L.). The results showed that ammonium, both from biogas digestate and from pure salt solutions, could be sorbed successfully to the bone chars post-pyrolysis and increased the nitrogen concentration of the chars (1.6 ± 0.3%) by 0.2-0.4%. This additional nitrogen was desorbed easily and supported plant growth (+17 to +37%) and plant nitrogen uptake (+19-74%). The sorption of ammonium to the bone chars had a positive effect on the reversal of pure bone char phytotoxicity and on nitrogen availability. In summary, this study showed that abattoir wastes are useful pyrolysis input materials to produce bone chars and to provide ammonium source for sorption to the chars. This innovation offers the possibility to produce nitrogen-enriched bone chars as a new type of fertilizer that upgrades the known value of bone char as phosphorus fertilizer by an additional nitrogen fertilizer effect.

Dynamics of labile and stable carbon and priming effects during composting of sludge and lop mixtures amended with low and high amounts of biochar.

This study was performed to investigate the effects of biochar amendment on the dynamics of labile and stable carbon (C) fractions and associated priming effects during composting of sludge and lop mixtures. Furthermore, the effect of aerobic composting on biochar stable C composition was analyzed. Low amounts of activated carbon [dosage 0-1.7% w/w] and higher amounts of charcoal [dosage 0-38% w/w] were applied to the organic feedstock mixture in two separated full-scale composting trials under practical field conditions. The results demonstrated that biochar-C was substantially more stable during the composting process than compost-derived organic C resulting in a significant enrichment of the stable black C fraction in the final product. Furthermore, stability of final products were significantly increased, if more biochar has been initially added prior to composting. However, labile organic C losses were increased (positive priming) if low amounts of activated carbon have been applied, while no short-term priming effects could be observed after adding charcoal over a wider application range. Moreover, biochar stable C composition was positively affected during the composting process. Based on our results, a biochar amendment ≥10% (w/w) seems generally favorable for an accelerated composting process, while stability characteristics of the final products were improved. However, some caution seems to be required concerning the usability of activated carbon due to positive priming.

Immobilisation of metals in a contaminated soil with biochar-compost mixtures and inorganic additives: 2-year greenhouse and field experiments.

Besides carbon sequestration and improvement of soil properties, biochar (BC) has increasingly been studied as an amendment to immobilise heavy metals in contaminated soils. In a 2-year experiment, we analysed the effects of poplar BC (P-BC, mixed with compost) and gravel sludge with siderite-bearing material (GSFe) on a Cd-, Pb- and Zn-contaminated soil and on metal concentration in Miscanthus × giganteus shoots under greenhouse and field conditions. In the greenhouse, 1% (m/m) P-BC addition reduced NH4NO3-extractable Cd, Pb and Zn concentrations by 75, 86 and 92%, respectively, at the end of the study. In the leachates, P-BC (1%) could significantly reduce Cd and Zn in both years. In the field, P-BC (3%) induced a reduction of extractable Cd by 87% whereas a combination of P-BC + GSFe reduced Pb by 82% and Zn by 98% in the first year and by 83 and 96% in the second year. In contrast, the metal immobilisation in the soil was hardly reflected in the shoots of Miscanthus × giganteus which generally showed metal concentrations close to control. While Cd was not influenced in both years, Pb and Zn were slightly reduced. Our study confirmed that Miscanthus is an efficient metal excluder, corroborating its suitability for the production of renewable biomass on metal-contaminated soils.