Organic Soil Amendments in the Phytoremediation Process

Abstract

Land application of biosolids, such as sewage sludge or compost, has a great incentive in view of its fertilizer and soil amendment values, unless they contain toxic elements. The heterogeneous nature of biosolids produced in different processes necessitates knowledge of the chemical and biological properties of biosolids prior to the land application. Plant wastes are being increasingly used to produce compost, which is an important amendment to improve the properties of degraded soils. Some soil amendments can be used directly for the remediation of degraded areas and to fertilize the soil. One of the challenges of environment management is connection in usage as many resources towards achieving maximum benefit with minimum damage to the environment and even with achieving the improvement of the soil conditions. The biomass, land, and wastes are extremely important resources in the green economy. The biomass becomes an increasingly important raw material that can be produced using a wide group of wastes and by-products during the soil reclamation process. The main objective of this study was to estimate the effectiveness of the conjugation of three processes: waste, land, and biomass management. The pot and field studies were conducted on degraded area, using by-products and organic waste, in order to achieve soil phytoremediation effect. The study was conducted using biosolids, e.g., compost from municipal sewage sludge, sewage sludge, and lacustrine chalk and two plants species, for wood biomass—pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and for green biomass as energy crops giant miscanthus (Miscanthus giganteus).