Abstract
Industrial by-products are stored in large quantities in the open, leading to wasted resources and environmental pollution, and the natural environment is similarly faced with phosphate depletion and serious water and soil pollution. This study uses these by-products to produce a new sludge/biomass ash ceramsite that will be used to adsorb nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater, and solidify heavy metals in the soil while releasing Olsen P. The sludge/biomass ash ceramsites are made using sewage sludge and biomass ash in a certain ratio calcined at high temperatures and modified for the adsorption of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. Sludge/biomass ash ceramsites before and after phosphorus adsorption, biochar and biomass ash were compared to analyze their heavy metal adsorption capacity and potential as phosphate fertilizer. After phosphorus adsorption, the sludge/biomass ash ceramsites released effective phosphorus steadily and rapidly in the soil, with a greater initial release than biochar and biomass ash, and the ceramsites were in a granular form that could be easily recycled. Biochar and biomass residue, due to their surface functional groups, are better at solidifying heavy metals than sludge/biomass ash ceramsites. Biochar, biomass ash and sludge/biomass ash ceramsites significantly reduced the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in the soil. Correlation analysis demonstrated that there was a synergistic relationship between the increase in soil Olsen P content and the change in pH, with the increase in soil Olsen P content and the increase in pH contributing to heavy metal solidification.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (2021YFC2902002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42272196 and 41972166), the Key Research and Development Program of Anhui Province (2023t07020006), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2108085QD161) and Project of Linhuan Coking Industry Company. We acknowledge editors and reviewers for polishing the language of the paper and for in-depth discussion.
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HS was responsible for conducting experiments and writing manuscripts. CZ guided the experiment and writing process. SX, JS and YH participated in some experiments and manuscript correction. GL controled the overall experimental process
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Shen, H., Zhou, C., Xu, S. et al. Study on the solidification performance and mechanism of heavy metals by sludge/biomass ash ceramsites, biochar and biomass ash. Environ Geochem Health 46, 78 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01846-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01846-8