New nitrogen-containing recycled fertilizers: Bioavailability of nutrients and harmful elements

Abstract

Environmental policies of the European Union aim to increase recycling and re-use of waste-streams. One of the economically most profitable ways of re-using waste is to use it as a fertilizer. In this study, recycled nitrogen fertilizers were manufactured from industrial side-streams (sawdust, fly-ash, ammonium sulfate and lignosulfonate). A sequential extraction procedure was applied to all the products tested in this paper to make sure that the environmental requirements of a recycled fertilizer would be fulfilled. A mass fraction of up to 7.0% of nitrogen was achieved with sawdust granule and 7.2% with fly-ash-sawdust granule, indicating that the granules would be well suited to be used as nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Nitrogen release from sawdust granule was more controlled than from commercial salpetre. Sawdust combined with fly-ash can hence give a balanced nutrient mix when used together. Bioavailabilities and pseudo-total contents of harmful elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were small in all granules and cause no harm in field or forest fertilizer use.