Food engineering residues: amino acid composition of hydrolysates and application for the decontamination of metal polluted soils

Abstract

Several residues of the brewing industry and slaughtering offals were investigated in order to evaluate their potential as raw materials for the hydrolytic preparation of amino acid containing solutions, applicable as extractants in amelioration processes for metal polluted soils. The residues were hydrolysed with 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid and the hydrolysates were analysed for their total nitrogen, TOC, amino acid and heavy metal contents. Then, the leaching capacities of the hydrolysates were examined in a series of batch tests with a contaminated soil.

High amino acid yields in relation to the weight of the air-dried raw materials were achieved with blood meal (72.5%) and poultry feather meal (56.6%). The portion of the detected amino acids of the total organic carbon content of the hydrolysates ranged from 38.9% (brewer's spent grain) to 93.6% (blood meal). In extraction tests with hydrolysates adjusted to a total amino acid concentration of 60 mmol/L and to a pH value of 7.0, maximum extraction yields of 50.3% for copper (soil content 279 mg kg⁻¹) and 38.7% for nickel (soil content 54 mg kg⁻¹) were reached. An increase of the hydrolysate concentration and of the pH of an amino acid mixture resulted in higher solubilisation of the metals.