Characterization of Tablets Made from Mixture of Charred Agricultural Residues with and Without Embedded Fertilizer

Abstract

Densification of biochar can reduce transportation and handling costs, as well as significantly decrease loss of biochar during soil application. Although the nutrient-rich biochar tablets may be a potential cost-effective slow-release fertilizer in soil, there is a lack of information on characterization of mixtures of rubber tree twigs and rice residues tablets with embedded NPK fertilizer. Objective of this work was to determine the physical and chemical properties of biochar tablets with and without embedded fertilizer. Biochar tablets were produced by blending of charred rice husk, rice straw, rubber tree twigs, and starch and followed by tableting. Their production with embedded fertilizer was similar to production process of tablets without it, except adding the NPK fertilizer to blending phase prior to tableting. Fourier-transform infrared spectra analysis indicates was utilized for determination of presence of ammonium and phosphorus substances in the biochar tablets with embedded fertilizer (BFs). The NPK fertilizer significantly increased tablet density and total contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The presence of higher amount of nutrients in BFs suggests that it could release nutrients for plant use.

Biochar Tablets with and without Embedded Fertilizer on the Soil Chemical Characteristics and Nutrient Use Efficiency of Zea mays

“…Dong et al [29] also reported increase in soil C with increasing biochar application. On the contrary, the biochar tablet embedded fertilizer application (T5) demonstrated lower soil total C. This is because the oxidized compounds on the surface of the biochar tablet embedded with fertilizer (T5) which reacted with mineral fertilizer might have shifted the non-labile C compounds to more labile C compounds [30] followed by them being decomposed by the soil microorganisms. The highest soil total N in T4 was due to the higher amount of the biochar in the biochar tablets (38 g).…”

Distributed Activation Energy Modelling Using a Parabolic Heating Profile

“…Pine needles are one of such waste materials that not only ruin the virgin forest through forest inferno, but also affect the fertility of forest land (Dhaundiyal and Gupta, 2014). Another scope of using biological waste (Lee et al, 2019) is to curtail the depletion of fossil fuel reservoirs. It has become difficult to curb emission for some of the fastest growing economies of the world like China and India.…”

Evaluation of Properties of Pellets Made of Swine Manure

“…Their utilization is closely tied to the requirements for the pellet quality. Multiple scientists investigate the pellet quality in Slovakia, as well as abroad (Dumitrascu et al, 2018;Jiang et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2019;Spirchez et al, 2019;Zamorano et al, 2011), who evaluated the pellet quality on the basis of their composition, density, moisture content, durability, etc. Zafari and Kianmehr (2012) have dealt with the issue of effects of temperature, pressure and moisture on durability of cattle manure pellets.…”