Residual effects of composted sewage sludge on nitrogen cycling and plant metabolism in a no-till common bean-palisade grass-soybean rotation.

Introduction And Aims: In the context of increasing population and decreasing soil fertility, food security is one of humanity's greatest challenges. Large amounts of waste, such as sewage sludge, are produced annually, with their final disposal causing environmental pollution and hazards to human health. Sludge has high amounts of nitrogen (N), and, when safely recycled by applying it into the soil as composted sewage sludge (CSS), its residual effect may provide gradual N release to crops.

Soil quality index as a tool to assess biochars soil quality improvement in a heavy metal-contaminated soil.

The assessment of soil quality improvement provided by biochars is complex and rarely examined. In this work, soil quality indices (SQIs) were produced to evaluate coffee industry feedstock biochars improvement on soil quality samples of a heavy metal-multicontaminated soil. Therefore, a 90-day incubation experiment was carried out with the following treatments: contaminated soil (CT), contaminated soil with pH raised to 7.

Physicochemical and bacterial changes during composting of vegetable and animal-derived agro-industrial wastes.

This study investigates the impact of different agro-industrial organic wastes (i.e., sugarcane filter cake, poultry litter, and chicken manure) on the bacterial community and their relationship with physicochemical attributes during composting.

Sewage Sludge Microbial Structures and Relations to Their Sources, Treatments, and Chemical Attributes.

Sewage sludges generation and their disposal have become one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. They have great microbial diversity that may impact wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) efficiency and soil quality whether used as fertilizers. Therefore, this research aimed to characterize microbial community diversity and structure of 19 sewage sludges from São Paulo, Brazil, as well as to draw their relations to sludge sources [domestic and mixed (domestic+industrial)], biological treatments (redox conditions and liming), and chemical attributes, using molecular biology as a tool.

Carbon stability and mitigation of fertilizer induced NO emissions in soil amended with biochar.

Biochar is a promising tool for an efficient and low environmental impact agriculture since can offer both soil carbon (C) sequestration and mitigation of nitrous oxide (NO) emissions. The extent of biochar C stability after soil amendment and efficiency in reducing NO emissions from an external nitrogen (N) source were accessed through laboratory incubations. A clay loam soil was amended with chicken manure (CM), sewage sludge (SS), eucalyptus sawdust (ES) and filter cake (FC) feedstocks and corresponding slow-pyrolysis (400°C) biochars at 5gCkg soil in combination with two N fertilizer rates (0 and 140mgNkg soil).

Ion leaching and soil solution acidification in a vadose zone under soil treated with sewage sludge for agriculture.

In this study, we performed monitoring of the soil solution (SS) over 10 years on a loamy/clayey-textured Dark Red Dystroferric Oxisol that received sewage sludge for agricultural purposes. The SS was obtained by lysimeters installed along the walls of a well at 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, 4 m and 5 m in depth. The major ions found in the SS were NO, SO, Cl, Ca, Mg, Al, Pb, Cd and Zn, and the pH level ranged from 4 to 6.

A Statistical Review of Alternative Zinc and Copper Extraction from Mineral Fertilizers and Industrial By-Products.

Rapid, accurate, and low-cost alternative analytical methods for micronutrient quantification in fertilizers are fundamental in QC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) content in mineral fertilizers and industrial by-products determined by the alternative methods USEPA 3051a, 10% HCl, and 10% H2SO4 are statistically equivalent to the standard method, consisting of hot-plate digestion using concentrated HCl. The commercially marketed Zn and Cu sources in Brazil consisted of oxides, carbonate, and sulfate fertilizers and by-products consisting of galvanizing ash, galvanizing sludge, brass ash, and brass or scrap slag.

Vegetable oil stability at elevated temperatures in the presence of ferric stearate and ferrous octanoate.

The thermoxidative stability of partially hydrogenated soybean oil (PHSBO) was examined after addition of ferric stearate and ferrous octanoate, and then heating the samples at 120, 160, 180, and 200 degrees C. In a second experiment, the effect of iron concentration (ferric stearate) on PHSBO stability was examined at 180 degrees C, and at concentrations of approximately 0.5 and 1.

PLS regression using real sample calibration for aluminum and iron determination in plant extracts.

Real samples were used for PLS model calibration and validation steps, showing that this approach can be of value in preventing deviations in the results caused by the matrix effects for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of aluminum and iron in plant extracts. One hundred UV-vis spectra, obtained from samples of the 1997 to 2000 International Plant-Analytical Exchange (IPE) program (The Netherlands), were used for model development, with ICP-AES aluminum and iron determinations as reference values for model calculation. The plant extracts were analyzed both by ICP-AES and by the PLS models developed in this work, using calibrations with both aqueous standard solutions and with real sample extracts.