Chemical speciation and phytoavailability of Zn, Cu, Ni and Cd in soil amended with fly ash-stabilized sewage sludge

D. C. Su, Jonathan W C WONG*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

184 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A sequential extraction method was used to determine chemical forms of Cu, Zn, Ni and Cd in fly ash-stabilized sludge. A loamy acid soil amended with fly ash-stabilized sludge was used to grow corn under greenhouse conditions. Sewage sludge amended with coal fly ash can reduce the availability of Cu, Zn, Ni and Cd in the sludge. Increasing fly ash amendment rate significantly reduced DTPA-extractable Cu, Zn, Ni and Cd concentrations. Percentages of Cu, Zn and Ni in residual fraction increased with an increase in fly ash amendment rates. Majority of Cu was associated with organic form, but Zn and Ni were associated with Fe-Mn oxide and residual forms. Addition of ash-amended sludge to soil significantly increased dry mass of corn. With coal fly ash amendment rate increasing, concentrations of Zn and Cu in shoot tissues of corn decreased significantly, but concentrations of Cd and Ni did not change significantly. Significant correlations were found between concentrations of Cu and Zn in corn shoot and oxide and total Cu fractions, and all chemical fractions of Zn in fly ash-stabilized sludge, respectively. Hence, ash amendment significantly reduced the availability of heavy metals by chemical modification of their chemical speciation into less available forms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)895-900
Number of pages6
JournalEnvironment International
Volume29
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2004

Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Environmental Science

User-Defined Keywords

  • Corn
  • Fly ash
  • Heavy metal speciation
  • Sludge
  • Uptake

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