NUTRIENT CONTENT AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FEW WASTE DERIVED SLOW PYROLYZED BIOCHARS

Five(5) different waste-derived biochar viz. animal bone, corn stover, wood chips, green coconut palms, and nutshells were slow pyrolyzed (500±50ºC) and further investigated to know their morphological characteristics and nutrient contents. Results produced the fact that corn stover biochar had the best nutrient status along with excellent physical properties like water holding capacity (525%) and CEC (251.85 Cmolc/kg) whilst coconut palm biochar was the second-best among all categories. The average particle size of WC biochar 0.82 (μm2) was the largest along with the maximum pore depth. Nonetheless, the region of this biochar was occupied by remarkably small particles, which was 47.42%. The corn stover biochar, on the other hand, had the smallest average particle size (0.18 μm2) and the lowest particle area (9.19%). WC biochar (51.3%) and CS biochar (46.2%) had the highest organic C value, while biochar nutshell had the lowest (15.31%), sequentially. Nutrient content can vary depending on the variation in the feedstock mostly N, P, K, and S in total content. Animal Bone biochar (3.89 percent) and biochar nutshells (3.32 percent) exhibited the highest total N content. In the interpretation, high phosphorus concentrations resulted in biochar derived from animal bone feedstock (8.44%), whereas other biochars were less than 1%. The CP biochar had higher total K content than other biochars. All the biochars exhibited equal total S concentration other than biochar derived from the animal bone (2.34%) had a higher percentage of total K compared with other biochar. Biochar related wastes showed a very low concentration of heavy metals such as Cr, Pb, Cd, and Ni. The overall amount of lead and cadmium in all of the biochar was below the detection mark.