Abstract
Oxidised lignite is a potential alternative source of N fertilizers. Ammonoxidation is the reaction of a given substrate with oxygen in aqueous ammonia. Lignite ammonoxidation is used for converting low-rank lignite into slowly nitrogen-releasing artificial humic matter. A lignite sample is compared before and after ammonoxidation in terms of geochemical and petrological properties, as well as the acid–base and physical hydrophobic sorptive behavior. The most obvious change caused by ammonoxidation is the decrease of attrinite, texto-ulminite and textinite in favor mainly of densinite and gelohuminite. In general, the ammonoxidative reactions promote the destruction of the structured humic macerals (texto-ulminite, textinite), and the formation of gels, which resulted in the cementation of the freely fine humic particles (attrinite). The pzc values are 3.4 and 4.3 for oxidised and non-oxidised lignite, respectively. After ammonoxidation the contents of carboxylic and free phenolic groups are found to be lower. The oxidised lignite shows a statistically lower sorptive capacity and affinity than the original sample due to a possible decrease in the hydrophobicity of the lignite.
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Acknowledgments
Konstantinos Dimou from the University of the Aegean, Greece, has provided technical assistance during the batch experiments for phenanthrene sorption. Dr Dimitra Kanelopoulou from the University of Patras, Greece, is acknowledged for support during the SSA determinations.
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Karapanagioti, H.K., Kalaitzidis, S., Vakros, J. et al. Effect of ammonoxidation on lignite properties. Environ Chem Lett 8, 373–380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0235-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0235-9