Karnataka J. Agric. Sci.

,20(3), (531-534): 2007

Coal Fly Ash as Modifier of Physico-Chemical and Biological Properties of Soil

N. A. YELEDHALLI, S. S. PRAKASH, S. B. GURUMURTHY AND M.V. RAVI Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry College of Agriculture, Raichur - 584 101, Karnataka, India (Received : October, 2006)
Abstract :A field experiment was conduced to study the effect of levels of fly ash (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 tones/ha) on physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties of alfisols, the yield parameters of sunflower, soil bacterial count and activity of soil enzymes; dehydrogenase, urease and alkaline phosphatase. Two levels of fertilizers were applied; No NPK and Recommended dose of NPK fertilizers. Physio-chemical and microbiological analysis was conducted after the harvest of sunflower. A study of graded level of coal fly ash amended alfisols revealed an increase in the content of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu and disturbed the microbiological balance and soil enzyme activity. Keywords: Coal fly ash, ameliorant, enzyme actirity

Introduction Fly ash is produced in thermal electrical power plant. According to the data provided by Govt. of India 110 million tones of this kind of waste is produced in India during 2005 - 06. Nearly 50 - 60 % of the fly ash is being stored at plant dump sites and other sites intended for this purpose. Fly ash is some times used in buildings, construction of roads, embankment and cement industries. Its alkaline character and a high concentration of mineral substances have resulted in attempts at using it as fertilizer or amendment to enhance the physico-chemical properties of soil. Apart from necessary nutrients, ashes contain elevated concentration of heavy metals which may disturb the biological properties. Fly ash may either have a positive and negative effect on plant growth and yielding if not used in optimum doses. The effect is determined primarily by chemical composition and the ash dose applied. In a study by Kalara et al .,2003, application of 5 to 12 tones ha-1 yr-1 has modified the soil physico-chemical properties viz., reduced the bulk density, increase the water holding capacity, improvement in the exchangeable calcium and magnesium status of the soil which enhanced the wheat yield. On the other hand, Khan and Khan, 1996 in their studies into the effect of increasing the concentration of ash in the soil (from 10 to 100 % of the volume) on the growth of tomatoes observed a positive effect of ash on plants. The greater application of fly ash doses decreased the yield of crop due to pozzolonic effect of fly ash in soil which induced the poor aeration and compaction. Based on the previous results the effect of soil fertilization with fly ash has been quite explored. Although the effect of this on the soil microbes is not well covered in the literature. The microbes are the important elements of the soil environment as they participate in the degradation of the organic matter and makes the nutrients available to other soil organisms. This favors the formation of soil aggregates and immobilizes the heavy metals and stimulate the activity of soil enzymes viz.,

dehydrogenase, urease and phosphatases etc., (Pati and Sahu, 2004). A great amount of elements ( C, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn and Mn) get into the soil as a result of ash used at different doses and may probably change the chemical as well as physicochemical soil properties which intern may determine the biological properties irrespective of the crop. Therefore the study was aimed at the determining the effect of graded levels of fly ash on physico-chemical properties and enzyme activity of soil. Material and Methods A field experiment was carried out at College of Agriculture farm Raichur, Karnataka state in three replications with RBD during the year 2001-02. The plough layer 0 15 cm of the soil and fly ash was characterized for various parameters and data are presented in Table 1. The red soil of the experiment soil belongs to Rampur series (typic hapluastulf) The texture of the soil was sandy clay loam, neutral in reaction (pH 7.09) and low in soluble salt (EC: 0.3dSm-1) with 1.53 Mg-3 bulk density. The coal ash was obtained from Raichur Super Thermal Power Station, Shaktinagar, Raichur. The experiment included the following factors (a) Dose of coal fly ash (t ha-1) (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100) with or without recommended dose of NPK fertilizer. The test crop was sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) cv. KBSH-1. The recommended dose of fertilizer for irrigated sunflower was 62.5:75:62.5 N:P2O5:K2O kg ha-1. At harvest, the yield of sunflower crop was determined and representative soil samples were collected for further analysis. The samples were stored in polythene bags at 4OC until the laboratory analysis was conducted (7 days). The microbial analysis of the soil included a determination of the total bacterial count using the plate method in three replication (Rangaswamy, 1966). The biochemical activity of soil enzymes; dehydrogenase with TTC substrate (Page et al., 1982), Catalase (Johnson and Temple, 1964), alkaline phosphate with method developed by Alef et al 1998. The contents of particular elements in soil and ash samples were analyzed by following standard methods.

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Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences : 20(3) , 2007 Results and Discussion Physio-chemical properties of coal fly ash depends on their origin and the composition of coal used for combustion. Raichur Thermal Station fly ashes are usually alkaline and contain high concentration of Ca, Mg, Na and heavy metals like Si, Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn. The application of graded levels of fly ashes resulted in an increase in available nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) in the soil (Table 4), which modified the physico-chemical soil properties and affected its biological activity significantly. Regardless of with or without application of recommended dose of NPK fertilizers, increasing levels of coal fly ash resulted in significant increase in pH, the total contents of alkaline exchange cations, cation exchange capacity and the per cent base saturation (Table 3). This was mainly attributed to the inherent properties of fly ash itself as evidenced from the characteristics properties (Table 1). The results are similar to those reported by Meller (1999). There were marginal changes in exchangeable calcium and magnesium, CEC and per cent base saturation due to application of fly ash with or without recommended dose of NPK fertilizers. However, there was significant improvement in the macro and micronutrient status of the soil due to application of fly ash along with the recommended dose of fertilizers at harvest of the sunflower crop due to enhanced nutrient supply. The sunflower responded to soil application with graded level of fly ash and manifested by reduced the seed yield, both in the soil without recommended dose of NPK fertilizers at higher levels of fly ash application. However, the average seed yield of sunflower was higher in soil
Table 1. Physical and chemical properties of soil of experimental site and fly ash Parameters Red soil Fly ash Texture Silty clay loam Silty loam Bulk Density (Mg-3) 1.53 0.98 Maximum water holding capacity (%) 38.10 61.50 pH (1:2.5) 7.09 8.38 EC (dSm-1) 0.30 0.75 Organic carbon (%) 0.63 0.12 Total elemental concentration (mg kg-1) Phosphorus 426.00 198.00 Potassium 15580.00 560.00 Sulphur 210.00 272.50 Zinc 28.00 107.00 Iron 18861.24 16531.00 Manganese 467.00 299.00 Copper 19.78 25.25 Available nutrients (mg kg-1) Phosphorus 11.26 21.65 Potassium 103.30 95.00 Sulphur 26.56 168.20 Zinc 1.19 1.56 Iron 22.12 8.72 Manganese 14.24 15.25 Copper 2.72 2.12

fertilized with recommended dose of NPK fertilizer (Table 2). The seed yield of sunflower varied significantly due to application of fly ash with or without recommended NPK fertilizers. The seed yield in control was 521 kg ha-1 which increase significantly to 855 kg ha-1 but was lower (978 kg ha-1) than that obtain due to application of recommended dose of NPK. Similar response of fly ash application in sunflower was observed by Kene et al., 1991 and Matte and Kene, 1995. The count and activity of soil bacteria depend on a number of factors. The climate, type and physico-chemical properties of the soil, the composition of species and toxic substances including heavy metals. In this study, the coal fly ash modified the soil bacteria count and its effect depends on the level of fly ash application, the microbes under study (Table 5). The total microbial population (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes) differ significantly. The data suggested that application of fly ash did not affect the microbial population adversely even though there was an increase in the soil pH, but this effect was negated by improvement in physical conditions and due to supply of some essential trace elements for growth of microorganisms (Lal et al., 1966) reported that the cumulative CO2 evolution increased only up to 8 per cent fly ash level. However, application of fly ash along with recommended dose of NPK fertilizers increased the population of bacteria significantly over control in all the treatments without NPK fertilizers such an increase might be attributed to complementary effect of fly ash and NPK fertilizer. Lal et al., (1996) and Rajkumar (2000) observed similar increase in the bacterial population due to combined application of fly ash and NPK and fly ash increased the microbial count significantly. Pati and Sahu (1990) also observed intensive respiration of fly ash amended soil, which reflected an increased activity of soil bacteria. Vallini et al., (1999) reported an increase in the bacterial and actinomycetes count due to application of fly ash amendment resulted in an increase in soil dehydrogenase activity in soil (Table 6). Not only the
Table 2. Effect of different levels of fly ash application on sunflower yield parameters Levels of
-1

Test weight
-1

Seed yield (kgha ) 521 1194 1120 1021 855 923 1053 1182 1078 978 30.0 88.1
-1

Stover yield Oil content (t ha-1) 1.70 2.41 2.38 2.35 2.19 2.25 2.68 2.44 2.42 2.35 0.06 0.18 (%) 33.34 31.42 35.71 36.31 35.05 34.52 31.85 34.43 33.58 35.74 0.60 1.76

fly ash (t ha ) (1000 seeds g ) Control 25 50 75 100 Control 25 50 75 100 S.Em+ CD (0.05) 36.06 34.42 38.53 37.36 38.35 43.11 38.51 40.01 36.72 37.27 1.54 NS

Without Recommended dose of NPK

With Recommended dose of NPK

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Coal Fly Ash as Modifier . . . . . . ..

Table 3: Some physico-chemical properties of alfisols after the harvest of sunflower Levels of fly ash pH EC OC Ex. Ca (t ha-1) (1:2.5 ratio) (dSm-1) (%) Without Recommended dose of NPK Control 6.85 0.27 0.46 15.60 25 6.95 0.32 0.66 16.80 50 7.24 0.45 0.62 17.36 75 7.12 0.58 0.61 17.88 100 7.38 0.72 0.51 18.86 With Recommended dose of NPK Control 6.70 0.31 0.53 16.30 25 6.92 0.40 0.75 16.88 50 6.87 0.63 0.73 17.28 75 6.88 0.69 0.65 19.88 100 7.06 0.73 0.56 19.90 0.09 0.009 0.05 0.35 S.Em+ CD (0.05) 0.27 0.027 0.14 0.50

Ex. Mg C mol (p+)kg-1 1.50 1.88 2.03 2.43 2.90 1.96 2.13 2.86 3.38 3.91 0.17 0.50

CEC

BS (%)

43.60 58.00 63.11 71.56 86.80 42.10 56.30 68.70 76.50 81.30 0.74 2.20

87.40 97.70 98.40 98.90 98.60 84.20 95.40 97.20 98.30 99.10 1.04 3.09

Table 4. Available nutrients in soil after the harvest of the sunflower as influenced by the different levels of fly ash. Levels of N P 2O 5 K2O SO4-S Fe Mn Zn fly ash (t ha-1) kgha-1 mgkg-1 Without Recommended dose of NPK Control 164.76 25.33 293.37 8.30 17.52 14.20 0.87 25 243.33 34.52 372.13 15.92 33.19 14.85 1.12 50 229.80 32.70 359.00 12.40 28.31 15.89 1.70 75 215.13 29.92 336.27 12.51 19.44 16.26 3.16 100 207.16 22.11 295.53 10.87 17.77 18.74 4.12 With Recommended dose of NPK Control 225.08 32.77 223.80 11.51 18.79 15.94 1.50 25 318.06 38.67 407.77 14.40 37.04 16.60 1.89 50 292.83 35.70 376.73 14.00 31.81 18.08 3.14 75 278.49 31.15 365.73 11.75 20.43 22.22 3.81 100 240.91 24.38 334.87 11.25 21.40 23.58 3.90 S.Em+ 5.63 0.61 6.26 0.29 0.83 0.51 0.14 CD (0.05) 16.53 1.78 18.35 0.84 2.42 1.48 0.40

Cu

2.31 2.64 3.39 4.10 4.60 2.56 2.39 3.22 3.28 4.26 0.14 0.45

bacteria count but also biochemical soil properties are extremely sensitive to the factors which disturb the biological balance of soil. The activity of soil enzymes, among other factors, affect the soil fertility /alkaline phosphates activity was least affected by ash. Application of NPK fertilization positively affected the activity of alkaline phosphates activity in soils (Table 6) but the enzyme activity decrease with increase in level of fly ash application. Similar results were observed in respect of population indicating strong relationship between dehydrogenase activity and microbial population as dehydrogenase activity represents gross soil biological activity (Wong and Lai, 1996). The decrease in the activity of dehydrogenase and catalase with higher rate of fly ash application might be due to increase in soil pH and dilution effect on the organic substances (Lai et al., 1999). The urease activity in the control was 17.90 N-NH4 g-1 which increased significantly to 29.90 N-NH4 g-1 due to application of fly ash at the rate of 25 ton ha-1. Further, there was decline in the urease

activity due to higher doses of fly ash application with NPK. This was mainly attributed to pozzolonic effect of fly ash which reduced the air capacity of the soil. The urease activity significantly increased over their respective combination without the application of recommended dose of NPK fertilizers. Of all the factors under study, the dose of coal fly ash and growing of crop had the most beneficial effect on increasing the nutrient status, soil bacterial count and the soil enzyme activity. On the other hand, the weakest effect was extended by the treatments not receiving NPK fertilizers. Application of graded levels of coal fly ash with or without recommended dose of NPK fertilizers increased the soil content of organic carbon, N, K, Ca, Mg, P, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu. Also increased the count of total bacteria, actinomycetes, but decreased the number of fungi. The activity of dehydrogenase, and urease increased. Fertilizing the soil with NPK enhanced the count of bacteria, actinomycetes and the activity of alkaline phosphatase.

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Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences : 20(3) , 2007

Table 5. Count of microorganisms in kg of dry weight soil Levels of fly ash Bacteria Fungi Actnomycetes (t ha-1) (108) (107) (108) Without Recommended dose of NPK Control 3.67 3.76 1.85 25 6.11 1.09 3.21 50 5.62 1.51 2.53 75 6.94 1.28 2.10 100 7.01 1.16 1.86 With Recommended dose of NPK Control 4.08 5.55 1.36 25 5.33 2.96 1.78 50 5.94 2.19 1.81 75 6.64 2.03 2.53 100 6.89 1.86 2.68 S.Em+ 0.20 0.11 0.08 CD (0.05) 0.59 0.31 0.25
Table 6. Enzyme activities in soil after the harvest of the sunflower as influenced by the different levels of fly ash. Levels of fly ash Dehydrogenase Urease Alkaline phoshatase (t ha-1 ) (milli mhols PFF h-1) (N-NH4 g-1) (milli mhols PNP h-1) Without Recommended dose of NPK Control 0.38 17.90 0.86 25 0.16 29.90 1.05 50 0.05 15.70 0.94 75 0.05 12.40 0.86 100 0.04 10.30 0.90 With Recommended dose of NPK Control 0.40 21.30 0.76 25 0.07 14.60 1.11 50 0.04 11.10 0.74 75 0.02 11.50 0.75 100 0.02 10.80 0.76 S.Em+ 0.02 0.12 0.05 CD (0.05) 0.06 0.36 0.14

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