Biomass ash and cattle slurry mixture solid fraction extracting and its use in agriculture

Abstract

As the use of local biofuels (wood and peat) in bioenergy production increases, the amount of ash as industrial waste increases. The use of wood ash from large furnaces is a technologically complex, time consuming and expensive process. The methods used to bury ashes by landfilling are unsustainable and expensive. A sustainable solution that reduces pollution is needed, as pure wood ash is a valuable source of plant food. Ash contains macro and trace elements that are needed by plants and can partially replace mineral fertilizers in agriculture, especially organic ones. The use of ash in agriculture has been little studied and implemented, the use of technology has not been resolved (ash collection and screening, fractionation, drilling, evaluation, etc.). The paper investigates the problem of mixing ash and slurry, so that the prepared ash can be spread with mechanized spreaders. Beef slurry is used as a binder to help create solid ash fractions. Studies have been carried out on the use of the obtained mixture in cultivation of summer wheat “Robbie” at different dose rates from 2-10 t·ha-1. The results showed that in order to return a field with a soil pH of 3-4 units to production at least 6 t·ha-1 of the obtained mixture are needed. After grain cleaning, an increase in the grain weight was observed for wheat fertilized with ash-liquid manure mixture. Compared to fertilized wheat, it ranged from 10 to 18 %, as well as an increase in TGM of 0.44 to 2.66 %.