Abstract:

Coal combustion products (CCP or “ash”) have been shown to be beneficial for improving soil quality and increasing vegetative yields. Because of their structure with more holes, they are also potential carriers of plant nutrients. The bottom ash from the Lambton Generating Station, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada were treated for 66 hours in 010 mol/L phosphorus solutions prepared from NaH2PO4, which resulted in the ash adsorbing 784×10-6 of phosphorus. The  ash was mixed with quartz sand and/or non Ploaded ash from the same source to provide a set of growth media that contained 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the recommended dose of phosphorus (50×10-6) for maize. The biomass yields on the 26th, 34th and 46th day after the planting were compared with those obtained by use of growth media with nondoped ash and with 0200 standard Pfertilizer. The results showed that in general, the growth media containing 25% to 100% of the recommended phosphorus dose performed as well as or better than the growth media with standard Pfertilizer did. On the 46th day after the planting, the shoot fresh weight for the 50%, 75% and 100% doped media increased 39.46%, 42.73% and 4613%, respectively, compared to the trials with Pfertilizer. Shoot dry weight increased 2971%, 1339% and 2887%, respectively, compared to the trials with Pfertilizer. Also, root fresh and dry weight increased 1662% and 1403% in average. This results implied that the coal ash is a better carrier for phosphorus, and the Ploaded ash can be a good additive for improving sand soil.

Key words:

coal combustion products; phosphorus; carrier; plant yields; sand soil improvement