Fertilizers

Fertilization of Eucalyptus plantations using sewage sludge on unfertile tropical soils represents an alternative to using mineral N and P fertilizers. A 44-month field experiment was conducted to study the effects of increasing application of sludge, and its interactions with mineral N and P fertilizers, on wood volume. Four rates of sludge (0, 8, 15 and 23 Mg ha À1 , dry base), N (0, 47, 95 and 142 kg ha À1) and P (0, 28, 56 and 84 kg ha À1 of P 2 O 5) were combined in a 4 Â 4 Â 4 factorial scheme in a totally randomized block design. Response surface and age-shift modeling was used to establish an initial recommendation for mineral fertilization of the Eucalyptus plantations treated with sludge and to analyze the implications of increased growth on the duration of the forest cycle in a tropical climate. The results showed that from 8 to 44 months after planting, the sludge application (with or without N and P) yielded a statistically larger wood volume (P < 0.05), compared to ...

Switchgrass ( L.) has been promoted as a potential feedstock for cellulosic biofuel in the United States. Switchgrass is known to respond to N fertilizer, but optimal rates remain unclear. Given the potential nonlinear response of nitrous oxide (NO) emissions to N inputs, N additions to switchgrass above optimal levels could have large impacts on the greenhouse gas balance of switchgrass-based biofuel. Additionally, N additions are likely to have large impacts on switchgrass production costs. Yield, N removal, and net returns were measured in switchgrass receiving 0 to 200 kg N ha in Manhattan, KS, from 2012 to 2014. Emissions of NO were measured in the 0- to 150-kg N ha treatments. Total emissions of NO increased from 0.2 to 3.0 kg NO-N ha as N inputs increased from 0 to 150 kg N ha. The 3-yr averages of fertilizer-induced emission factors were 0.7, 2.1, and 2.6% at 50, 100, and 150 kg N ha, respectively. Removal of N at harvest increased linearly with increasing N rate. Switchgras...

Risk is defined as the probability of a specific adverse event occurring within a specific period, while Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is the development of a quantitative estimate of risk based on engineering evaluation and mathematical techniques by combining estimate of incident consequences and frequencies. In view of the increase in the use of railways as the mode of transportation for hazardous materials throughout the world, the associated risk analysis should be taken into concern. In this study, the failure frequency of the transportation of ammonia from the Petronas fertilizers Kedah (PFK) plant in Gurun (Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia), to the Chemical Company Malaysia (CCM) fertilizer's facilities in Port Klang (South-western part of Peninsular Malaysia) was evaluated by incorporating the human error assessment. The study highlighted the importance of human error contributions in the failure frequency analysis and its impact on the selected failure scenarios. Besides, it also shows that the application of the human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART), which is a useful human reliability analysis tool, should be used in parallel with the fuzzy arithmetic approach to reduce the uncertainties involved in the estimation of human error probabilities, and hence, to reduce the likelihood of incorrect risks estimates being assessed. The results suggested that the commonly applied approach in quantitative risk assessments, which only consider equipment failures in the failure frequency estimations, are clearly an underestimate of the potential causes of failures leading to hazardous material releases, and hence, the calculated risks based do not reflect the actual risks. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009

An experiment was carried out to examine the effectiveness of four different composts formulated from poultry (PM) and cowdung (CD) manures as primary constituents and two bulking agents namely sawdust (SD) and sorted refuse (SR) on some yield components of maize for two cropping seasons. All compost mixtures were fortified with rock phosphate and urea. The compost treatments (PM/SD, PM/SR, CD/SD and CD/SR at ratio 3:1) were applied at 2.5 tonnes/ha, replicated three times with NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer applied at 300 kg/ha as reference treatment and a control (no compost, no fertilizer), all arranged in a randomized complete design. The results showed that the composts significantly increased (P<0.05) all the maize yield components measured for the two cropping seasons. The PM/SD and PM/SR produced a higher grain yield of 3326 and 3218 kg/ha, respectively, for the first cropping season and 1603 and 2423 kg/ha, respectively, for the second season compared to the cowdung-based com...

In arid-zone agriculture where available irrigation water is saline, desalination is becoming an attractive method for increasing yields and reducing negative environmental consequences. However, irrigation with desalinated water can be problematic if essential nutrients, including Ca, Mg, and S, removed during reverse osmosis, are not reintroduced. We evaluated two strategies for supplying these nutrients — direct fertilization and blending of

On April 17, 2013, a fire and subsequent explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company plant in West, Texas, and caused extensive damage to the adjacent neighborhood. This investigation described the fatal and nonfatal injuries caused by the explosion. Persons injured by the fertilizer plant explosion were identified through death certificates, medical examination reports, medical records, and survivor interviews. Data on patient characteristics, type of injury, and location of injury were collected. Medical record review indicated that 252 individuals sought medical care for nonfatal injuries directly related to the explosion immediately after the explosion. Fifteen patients died of injuries sustained by the blast. Almost one-quarter of patients were admitted for treatment of injuries. Injuries sustained in the explosion included abrasions/contusions, lacerations/penetrating trauma, traumatic brain injuries/concussions, tinnitus/hearing problems, eye injuries, and inhalational ...

The worldwide agricultural enterprise is facing immense pressure to intensify to feed the world’s increasing population while the resources are dwindling. Fertilizers which are deemed as indispensable inputs for food, fodder, and fuel production now also represent the dark side of the intensive food production system. With most crop production systems focused on increasing the quantity of produce, indiscriminate use of fertilizers has created havoc for the environment and damaged the fiber of the biogeosphere. Deteriorated nutritional quality of food and contribution to impaired ecosystem services are the major limiting factors in the further growth of the fertilizer sector. Nanotechnology in agriculture has come up as a better and seemingly sustainable solution to meet production targets as well as maintaining the environmental quality by use of less quantity of raw materials and active ingredients, increased nutrient use-efficiency by plants, and decreased environmental losses of nutrients. However, the use of nanofertilizers has so far been limited largely to controlled environments of laboratories, greenhouses, and institutional research experiments; production and availability on large scale are still lagging yet catching up fast. Despite perceivable advantages, the use of nanofertilizers is many times debated for adoption at a large scale. The scenario is gradually changing, worldwide, towards the use of nanofertilizers, especially macronutrients like nitrogen (e.g. market release of nano-urea to replace conventional urea in South Asia), to arrest environmental degradation and uphold vital ecosystem services which are in critical condition. This review offers a discussion on the purpose with which the nanofertilizers took shape, the benefits which can be achieved, and the challenges which nanofertilizers face for further development and real-world use, substantiated with the significant pieces of scientific evidence available so far.

The influence of extensive sedum-moss vegetated roofs on runoff water quality was studied for four full scale installations located in southern Sweden. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether the vegetated roof behaves as a sink or a source of pollutants and whether the age of a vegetated roof influences runoff quality. The runoff quality from vegetated roofs was also compared with the runoff quality from non-vegetated roofs located in study areas. The following metals and nutrients were investigated: Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Pb, Zn, NO3-N, NH4-N, Tot-N, PO4-P, and Tot-P. The results show that, with the exception of nitrogen, vegetated roofs behave as source of contaminants. While in lower concentrations than normally found in urban runoff, some metals appear in concentrations that would correspond to moderately polluted natural water. Nitrate nitrogen is retained by the vegetation or soil or both. Apart from the oldest, the studied vegetated roofs contribute phosphate phosphoru...

Field experiments were conducted during two consequent years in semi-arid, subtropical climate of Rohtak district situated in North-West Indian state Haryana to evaluate the effects of eco-friendly organic matrix entrapped urea (OMEU) on wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. WH-711). The OMEU prepared in granular form contained cow dung, rice bran (grain cover of Oryza sativa), neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves and clay soil (diameter of particles < 0.002 mm) in 1:1:1:1 ratios and saresh (plant gum of Acacia sp.) as binder entrapping half of the recommended dose of urea. A basal application of organic matrix entrapped urea showed increase in plant growth in terms of fresh and dry weights, root length, root number, leaf number, tillers, plant height earlet number, earlet length and productivity in terms of grain yield and straw yield over free form of urea (FU) and no fertilizer (NF) application. The OMEU increased total soluble proteins, organic N and free ammonium content in the leaves...

The conventional agriculture leads to some important pollution of ground water (particularly, by nitrates). The solution is the coating of fertilizers by degradable polymers. In this work, we have studied the water vapour and liquid diffusion through polymer films detached from their support. Therefore, we may classify polymers as a function of their properties like water vapour and liquid barrier. We may choose the best polymer(s) for coating.coated fertilizers by chosen polymer(s) with mechanical techniques such as fluidised bed and pan coating. Moreover, the electron microscopy used to see the quality of the wall has showed the presence of pores due to the rapid evaporation of solvent. A drying in air current and an annealing could be done to avoid this problem.followed the ions release of fertilizers immersed in distilled water by conductimetry. The more interesting result was obtained with fertilizers coated by polylactic acid. In effect, the total release reached three weeks.

A B S T R A C T: There is interconnection between soil quality, water quality, and food safety that is necessary to evaluate pollution levels in these components. Soil contamination by potentially hazardous elements may pose direct and indirect threats as negative impacts on the plant growth and yield, entering the human food chain with potentially negative effects on human health. Intensive agriculture (industrial agriculture) in agro-industry could have resulted in an enrichment of potentially hazardous elements in soils and accumulation in crops because of excess use of fertilizers and amendments. Unfortunately, despite these conditions, there were few or no investigations of potentially hazardous elements in farming areas of agro-industry sectors. This research was undertaken in agricultural lands of Moghan agro-industry complex located in the Moghan's plain (as one of the main poles of agriculture) in the north of Ardebil province and west of the Caspian Sea. The present study was designed to investigate the concentrations of Cd and Pb in agricultural soils, irrigation water, Alfalfa and commonly used fertilizers in the agricultural lands of Moghan agro-industry. The results showed that the average concentrations of the Cd and Pb in agricultural soils of Moghan agro-industry complex were 0.55 and 163.60 mg·kg − 1 , respectively. Moreover, the mean concentrations of Cd and Pb were 0.61, and 0.07 μg·l − 1 in irrigation water samples, respectively, 0.45, and 0.009 mg·kg − 1 in Alfalfa samples, 0.62 and 51.87 mg·kg − 1 in superphosphate fertilizer samples, 0.67 and 51.87 mg·kg − 1 in animal manure samples and 0.001 and 3.66 mg·kg − 1 in urea fertilizer samples. Superphosphate fertilizer showed higher content of Cd and Pb than urea fertilizer, indicating the importance of phosphate fertilizer on the accumulation of potentially hazardous elements in soils. Based on the results of this research and values of Transfer Factor (TF), it was found that the Alfalfa (Medicago scutellata) had high ability to accumulate cadmium from contaminated soils, but the accumulation rate of Pb was much lower than Cd. Phosphate fertilizer and/or animal manure may be the main sources of contribution by Cd and Pb in the agricultural soils of the study area, but irrigation water had no significant effect on the potentially hazardous elements accumulation in soil.

Turf grasses are ubiquitous in the urban landscape of the United States and are often associated with various types of environmental impacts, especially on water resources, yet there have been limited efforts to quantify their total surface and ecosystem functioning, such as their total impact on the continental water budget and potential net ecosystem exchange (NEE). In this study, relating turf grass area to an estimate of fractional impervious surface area, it was calculated that potentially 163,800 km2 (± 35,850 km2) of land are cultivated with turf grasses in the continental United States, an area three times larger than that of any irrigated crop. Using the Biome-BGC ecosystem process model, the growth of warm-season and cool-season turf grasses was modeled at a number of sites across the 48 conterminous states under different management scenarios, simulating potential carbon and water fluxes as if the entire turf surface was to be managed like a well-maintained lawn. The results indicate that well-watered and fertilized turf grasses act as a carbon sink. The potential NEE that could derive from the total surface potentially under turf (up to 17 Tg C/yr with the simulated scenarios) would require up to 695 to 900 liters of water per person per day, depending on the modeled water irrigation practices, suggesting that outdoor water conservation practices such as xeriscaping and irrigation with recycled waste-water may need to be extended as many municipalities continue to face increasing pressures on freshwater.

Phosphogypsum (PG), the major waste material in phosphate fertilizer processing, has been known to contain enhanced levels of naturally-occurring radionuclides especially 226Ra.The lack of radioactivity data regarding Philippine phosphogypsum and its environmental behavior in the Philippine setting has brought concern on possible contamination of groundwater beneath the phosphogypsum ponds in Isabel, Leyte, Philippines. The radioactivity of Philippine phosphogypsum was determined and the leaching of 226Ra from phosphogypsum and through local soil was quantified. Level of 226Ra in groundwater samples in Isabel, Leyte, Philippines was also quantified to address the primary concern. It was found that the 226Ra activity in Philippine phosphogypsum is distributed in a wide range from 91.5 to 935 Bq/kg. As much as 5% of 226Ra can be leached from Philippine PG with deionized water. In vitro soil leach experiments suggest that the soil in the phosphate fertilizer plant area would be able to deter the intrusion of 226Ra into the water table. Compared to reported values of natural groundwater levels of 226Ra, the concentration of this radionuclide in Isabel, Leyte groundwater suggest that there is no 226Ra intrusion brought about by the presence of phosphogypsum ponds in the area.

The soil C, N, P and K content of agricultural soil were measured over the last 4 decades in NE Catalonia (NE Spain). Plant-available P and K increased by ca 109 and 105% respectively and total N decreased by 30%. The increases in plant-available P content are in accordance with the increasingly used pig slurry being very rich in P, and with P tendency to be retained in soils, since it is less mobile than N. The total soil N (N(tot)) decrease occurred in the first decade (by 41%). The uptake and withdrawal of mineral N by crops and the leaching of mineral N into groundwater and rivers after torrential rainfalls were the two likely major pathways of N-loss from the soil. After the first decade, there has been no further decrease of N(tot) as a result of the increasing fertilization of these fields, including the increasing applications of pig slurry. These results show an increasing P eutrophication in Mediterranean agricultural soils and will have several consequences for the next d...

The expansion of the use of safe alternatives such as bio-fertilizers and organic fertilizer programs in fruit seedlings has become part of a system known as clean cultivation because of its many advantages that contribute to improving growth, productivity, quality and production of a safe crop as well as preserving the environment by reducing or avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers, Therefore, this study was conducted to demonstrate the importance of adding biological fertilizer (Gorabac G) in three concentrations (5, 10 and 15 grams. Seedlings-1), liquid organic fertilizer (Compo) in three concentrations (4, 6 and 8 ml-1) and organic fertilizer (Rice residues (in three concentrations (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kg. Seedlings-1) in addition to the comparison treatment (without adding any type of fertilizer) in improving the vegetative growth and mineral content of grapefruit seedlings grafted on Sour orange, he biological fertilizer (Gorabac G) used in the study and in particular the concentration was 15 grams. Seedlings-1 had a significant effect in obtaining the highest values for most of the studied traits, as this treatment was significantly superior to the comparison treatment with the traits (leaf content of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, chlorophyll, carbohydrates and proteins in addition to the increase in the height and diameter of seedlings), so within similar circumstances the study recommends using This concentration of this vital fertilizer is to get strong, well-growing seedlings.