article · Biochar
Agricultural waste can be repurposed to capture essential nutrients from livestock runoff. Researchers developed a magnesium oxide doped biochar made from mildewed corn, testing both thermally pre-puffed and non-puffed versions for phosphorus recovery from wastewater. The thermal pre-puffing treatment improved metal soaking and chemical dispersion across the biochar matrix. As a result, the pre-puffed material achieved faster phosphorus capture in seven hours compared to twelve hours for untreated biochar, alongside a markedly higher recovery capacity in both batch and column tests. Although the biochar demonstrated low regeneration potential after saturation, the nutrient-loaded end product functioned effectively as a slow-release fertiliser in soil trials, enhancing available phosphorus and promoting plant growth. An economic assessment indicated that pre-puffing converted the biochar production process into a profitable operation.
Phosphorus is a critical component of agricultural fertilisers, yet excessive runoff from livestock waste pollutes natural waterways. Using damaged agricultural biomass to extract phosphorus provides a dual environmental solution. It simultaneously cleans wastewater and recycles a depleting nutrient into a slow-release soil improver, offering a circular economy approach that could reduce reliance on synthetic fertilisers.
This process applies to livestock wastewater remediation and sustainable fertiliser manufacturing. Potential users include agricultural operations seeking on-farm waste treatment solutions and fertiliser blenders. Given that the technology has been applied and tested in laboratory column experiments, soil trials, and economic evaluations, it sits at an applied testing stage, requiring scaled-up pilot validation before commercial deployment.
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Abstract To improve the phosphorus (P) recovery efficiency from livestock wastewater, a novel MgO doped mildewed corn biochar with thermal pre-puffing treatment (Mg-PBC) and without pre-puffing (Mg-BC) was synthesized and tested. The thermal-puffing pretreatment improved the effectiveness of metal soaking and MgO dispersion. P recovery time with Mg-PBC (7 h) was significantly shorter than that with Mg-BC (12 h). Moreover, Mg-PBC showed significantly higher P recovery capacity (241 mg g −1 ) than Mg-BC (96.6 mg g −1 ). P recovery capacity of the Mg-PBC fitted to the Thomas model was 90.7 mg g −1 , which was 4 times higher than that of Mg-BC (22.9 mg g −1 ) under column test conditions. The mechanisms involved in P recovery included precipitation, surface complexation, and electrostatic interaction. After adsorption, both Mg-BC and Mg-PBC showed relatively low regeneration abilities. The P loaded Mg-BC (Mg-BC-P) and Mg-PBC (Mg-PBC-P), the later particularly, obviously increased the available P content and promoted plant growth. The release of P increased with time in the Mg-PBC-P treated soil, while it decreased with time in the P fertilizer treated soil. A cost–benefit analysis revealed that thermal-puffing pretreatment greatly increased the profit of MgO doped biochar from −0.66 to 5.90 US$ kg −1 . These findings highlight that biomass pre-puffing is a feasible treatment to produce MgO modified biochar and to recover P from livestock wastewater, and that the Mg-PBC-P can be used as a slow-release P fertilizer. Graphical Abstract
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DOI: 10.1007/s42773-023-00212-2
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