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Pyrolysis Treatment Enables Safe Application of Sewage Sludge in Horticulture: Tracking Potentially Toxic Elements Through the Biochar-Soil–Plant System in Tomato

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Abstract

Biochar production via pyrolysis is a promising option for treating sewage sludge (SS). Here we investigated the uptake of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) from SS and its biochar (450 °C) into cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) plants and their fruits in pot experiments (2, 5 and 10%), to assess the health risks associated with fruit consumption. We further studied the ability of the PTE-rich amendments to immobilize PTEs already present in soil through spiking of soil (pH 7.4) with Cd, Cu and Zn. Our findings suggest that tomato consumption is not a human health risk when grown in soil amended with SS and its biochar; in most treatments PTE uptake into fruits was similar to the control. Vegetative plant growth was highest in SS-amended soils. Yet 5 and 10% biochar-amended soils significantly increased tomato fruit yield relative to untreated SS application (400–500% higher than 10% SS-amended soil) and significantly decreased fruit uptake of Cu and Zn. Importantly, biochar also significantly immobilized PTEs present in contaminated (spiked) soil. As expected, available (DTPA-extractable) PTE contents were typically lower in biochar-amended soil and sequential extraction indicated that the PTEs were predominantly bound in more recalcitrant soil fractions (organic matter associated and Fe–Mn oxides-bound). We conclude that pyrolysis can be a key technology for treatment of PTE-rich SS and subsequent use of the produced biochar in urban, and potentially even PTE-contaminated, horticultural sites.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this article (and its supplementary information files). Detailed data can be made available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the University of Bu-Ali Sina for providing support for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

    Samaneh Tahervand & Mohsen Jalali

  2. Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Wolfram Buss

  3. Conversion Technologies of Biobased Resources, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

    Wolfram Buss

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  1. Samaneh Tahervand
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  2. Mohsen Jalali
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ST: laboratory analyses, writing original draft. MJ: writing, review and editing. WB: writing, review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Samaneh Tahervand.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4 and Figs. 5, 6 and 7.

Table 4 Correlation coefficient between different forms of PTEs in rhizosphere soils and PTEs contents in aboveground parts (shoot + fruit) of cherry tomato (n = 7)
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Fig. 5
figure 5

Scanning election microscopy (SEM) of the SS (a) and SS biochar (b) at 500 × magnification; SS (c) and SS biochar (d) at 1000 × magnification; SS (e) and SS biochar (f) at 3000 × magnification

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Fig. 6
figure 6

FTIR spectra of SS and SS biochar

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Fig. 7
figure 7

Mobility factor based on data from the sequential extraction of PTEs in rhizosphere soils (left columns in each figure) and bulk soils (right columns) in non-spiked (a, c and e) and spiked soils (b, d and f). Columns marked with the same letter are not significantly different (Duncan’s multiple range test) at the p < 0.05 level. Error bars represent standard deviations (n = 3). C control soil, SS sewage sludge, B sewage sludge biochar

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Tahervand, S., Jalali, M. & Buss, W. Pyrolysis Treatment Enables Safe Application of Sewage Sludge in Horticulture: Tracking Potentially Toxic Elements Through the Biochar-Soil–Plant System in Tomato. Waste Biomass Valor 13, 1277–1292 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-021-01558-z

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