Solubility, Diffusion and Crop Uptake of Phosphorus in Three Different Struvites

Ioná Rech, Paul J. A. Withers, Davey L. Jones and Paulo S. Pavinato
Additional contact information
Ioná Rech: College of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz, ESALQ-USP, Av. Padua Dias, Piracicaba-SP 11. 13418-900, Brazil
Paul J. A. Withers: Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK
Davey L. Jones: Environment Center Wales, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK
Paulo S. Pavinato: College of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz, ESALQ-USP, Av. Padua Dias, Piracicaba-SP 11. 13418-900, Brazil

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Phosphate (P) fertilisers produced from waste recycling (e.g., struvite) are considered to be more sustainable than those conventionally produced from the processing of rock P (e.g., highly soluble triple superphosphate, TSP). In this study, we used 33 P to monitor struvite dissolution and P diffusion into the soil in comparison to TSP. We evaluated three distinct chemical formulations of struvite, namely: (1) Crystal Green ® (CG) produced in an industrial process from sewage sludge; (2) natural struvite (NS) precipitated in swine manure pipelines; and (3) laboratory precipitated struvite (PS) from chicken manure by a new process of P recovery. P diffusion was evaluated in soil columns over a 21-day period. This was complimented with a pot experiment in which wheat and soybean were cultivated in a Eutric Cambisol for 38 days in the presence of either struvite or TSP. P fertilisers were applied at a dose equivalent to 17.5 kg P ha −1 and fertiliser solubility determined by recovering soil solution. All three types of struvite tested showed reduced P solubility and mobility relative to TSP, but a comparison of the three struvites has shown that their P solubilities differed by a factor of two, with the greatest P release (up to 85% of total P) obtained from a struvite recovered from poultry manure and containing other useful nutrients (K, S and Ca). All struvites enhanced crop growth and P uptake of wheat and soybean relative to a nil P control, with up to 80% P recovery compared to TSP. These results further support the more widespread use of struvite as a sustainable source of P to plants despite its low water solubility.

Keywords: struvite; nutrient use efficiency; fertiliser dissolution; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/1/134/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/1/134/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2018:i:1:p:134-:d:193530

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().