Co-composting of fresh tobacco leaves and soil: an exploration on the utilization of fresh tobacco waste in farmland.

A large amount of fresh tobacco waste with high water content are produced in farmland, and it may cause environmental pollution if it is not properly treated. The fresh tobacco waste is not easily collected and transported, resulting in its centralized treatment is expensive. This study is to clarify whether it is feasible to treat fresh tobacco wastes by co-composting of them and soil in farmland and applied the obtained compost product into the soil instead of a part of tobacco-specific fertilizer. The results showed that, compared with that in original soil, the relative abundance of Pseudomonas, Azotobacter, and Coprinus of the co-composted products increased by roughly 244%, 323%, and 675%, respectively, and effective nitrogen and available potassium increased by roughly 157% and 132%, respectively. In addition, the nicotine content in co-composted products decreased dramatically compared with the discarded tobacco leaves. The application of the co-composted products and 20% fertilizer amount (15 g/plant) (YD5) exhibited the highest relative abundance of beneficial microbial communities in the soil and the best growth of tobacco plants. The co-composting of fresh tobacco waste and soil in farmland is an effective measure to treat the fresh tobacco waste, and its products increased beneficial microorganisms and stimulate the growth of tobacco plants by replacing an amount of the fertilizer.

[Apply fourier transform infrared spectra coupled with two-dimensional correlation analysis to study the evolution of humic acids during composting].

The composition and structure of humic acids formed during composting play an important influence on the quality and mature of compost. In order to explore the composition and evolution mechanism, municipal solid wastes were collected to compost and humic and fulvic acids were obtained from these composted municipal solid wastes. Furthermore, fourier transform infrared spectra and two-dimensional correlation analysis were applied to study the composition and transformation of humic and fulvic acids during composting. The results from fourier transform infrared spectra showed that, the composition of humic acids was complex, and several absorbance peaks were observed at 2917-2924, 2844-2852, 2549, 1662, 1622, 1566, 1454, 1398, 1351, 990-1063, 839 and 711 cm(-1). Compared to humic acids, the composition of fulvci acids was simple, and only three peaks were detected at 1725, 1637 and 990 cm(-1). The appearance of these peaks showed that both humic and fulvic acids comprised the benzene originated from lignin and the polysaccharide. In addition, humic acids comprised a large number of aliphatic and protein which were hardly detected in fulvic acids. Aliphatic, polysaccharide, protein and lignin all were degraded during composting, however, the order of degradation was different between humic and fulvci acids. The result from two-dimensional correlation analysis showed that, organic compounds in humic acids were degraded in the following sequence: aliphatic> protein> polysaccharide and lignin, while that in fulvic acids was as following: protein> polysaccharide and aliphatic. A large number of carboxyl, alcohols and ethers were formed during the degradation process, and the carboxyl was transformed into carbonates. It can be concluded that, fourier transform infrared spectra coupled with two-dimensional correlation analysis not only can analyze the function group composition of humic substances, but also can characterize effectively the degradation sequence of these groups and identified the formation mechanism and dynamics of humic substances during composting.

[Influence of organic matter evolution during composting on the bioavailability of heavy metals].

Ion chromatography, fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and multivariate statistical analysis were applied to study the composition and evolution characteristics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and heavy metal extracted from chicken manure during composting, and the influence of organic matter evolution on the bioavailability of these heavy metals was further investigated. The result showed that, a large number of organic acids were generated during the active stage, and their concentrations were in the range of 2097.55-2155.61 mg x L(-1), 39.24-51.58 mg x L(-1), 12.52-12.90 mg x L(-1) and 1.68-2.31 mg x L(-1), respectively. During the curing stage, protein-like matter was degraded, whereas humic-like substances were formed, which increased the humification degree, condensation degree and stability of DOM. The content (1.069-7.106 mg x L(-1)) of dissolved iron ranked first during composting, that of dissolved Al, As, Cr, Cu and Mn (0.1-1.008 mg x L(-1)) ranked second, and the concentration of dissolved lead was the lowest. Concentrations of all heavy metals decreased during composting except aluminum. Furthermore, the result from correlation analysis showed that these dissolved heavy metals were bound with DOM, and their bioavailability was low. It could be concluded that, the bioavailability of the heavy metals in chicken manures became lower through the decrease of dissolved heavy metals and the binding between dissolved heavy metals and humic-like substances.

[Study on the characteristics of three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission spectra of methanol and ethanol].

For the purpose of revealing the spectra characteristics of methyl and ethanol, and establishing a method for distinguishing each other, the fluorescence features of methyl and ethanol were studied by three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix spectra. The results obtained showed that there were two peaks in the three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix spectra of methyl, and the intensities of the two peaks were positively related to the concentration of methyl when it was less than 15%. On the other hand, a whole fluorescence peak was only observed in the three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix spectra of ethanol, and the intensity of the peak was positively correlated to the content of ethanol when it was less than 50%. There was a higher fluorescence efficiency for the methanol as compared to the ethanol. When the methyl was used for organic solvents to study the fluorescent nature of the organic matter, the fluorescence emitted by the methyl should be deduced. The locations of the fluorescence peaks of the methyl and ethanol were different. The peaks of the methyl were located at 225/350 nm and 250/375 nm, while the peak of the ethanol was characterized by 240/310 nm. Therefore, the fluorescence peak locations of the two alcohols could be applied to discriminate each other.