Quality improvement of acidic soils by biochar derived from renewable materials

Deok Hyun Moon, Inseong Hwang, Yoon Young Chang, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Kyung Hoon Cheong, Won Hyun Ji, Jeong Hun Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biochar derived from waste plant materials and agricultural residues was used to improve the quality of an acidic soil. The acidic soil was treated for 1 month with both soy bean stover-derived biochar and oak-derived biochar in the range of 1 to 5 wt% for pH improvement and exchangeable cation enhancement. Following 1 month of treatment, the soil pH was monitored and exchangeable cations were measured. Moreover, a maize growth experiment was performed for 14 days with selected treated soil samples to confirm the effectiveness of the treatment. The results showed that the pH of the treated acidic soil increased by more than 2 units, and the exchangeable cation values were greatly enhanced upon treatment with 5 wt% of both biochars, after 1 month of curing. Maize growth was superior in the 3 wt% biochar-treated samples compared to the control sample. The presented results demonstrate the effective use of biochar derived from renewable materials such as waste plant materials and agricultural residues for quality improvement of acidic soils.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4194-4199
Number of pages6
JournalEnvironmental Science and Pollution Research
Volume24
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • Acidic soil
  • Biochar
  • Maize growth
  • Renewable materials
  • Soil pH
  • Soil quality improvement

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