Development of Soil Substitutes for the Sustainable Land Reclamation of Coal Mine-Affected Areas

Arkadiusz Bauerek, Jean Diatta, Łukasz Pierzchała, Angelika Więckol-Ryk and Alicja Krzemień
Additional contact information
Arkadiusz Bauerek: Department of Environmental Monitoring, Central Mining Institute, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Jean Diatta: Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Environmental Biogeochemistry, Poznan University of Life Sciences, 60-625 Poznań, Poland
Łukasz Pierzchała: Department of Water Protection, Central Mining Institute, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Angelika Więckol-Ryk: Department of Extraction Technologies, Rockburst and Risk Assessment, Central Mining Institute, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Alicja Krzemień: Department of Extraction Technologies, Rockburst and Risk Assessment, Central Mining Institute, 40-166 Katowice, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: The main purpose of this paper was to outline a novel approach for the use of industrial by-products generated in coal mines and coal-fired power plants as the components for artificial soils. Several coal combustion by-products, coal mine waste and organic waste materials were tested at laboratory scale for use in the reclamation of areas degraded by coal mining activity. The role of artificial soils was the land rehabilitation of the high acidic waste heap. The results revealed that the amounts of organic matter (14.87–25.01%) and nutrients in the soil substitutes were sufficient to support plant growth, i.e., N (0.37–0.51%), P (0.23–0.47%), K (1.78–3.17%), Ca (4.93–8.39%) and Mg (1.16–1.71%). A phytotoxicity test using white mustard ( Sinapis alba ) seeds under laboratory conditions showed good germination results (56–66%) for three soil substitutes that did not contain fly ash from biomass combustion, compared to the reference soil (84%). The relationships established for the aqueous leachate parameters of soil substitutes vs. the Sinapis alba germination revealed negative correlations with electrical conductivity (r = −0.88), SO 4 2− (r = −0.91) and Cl − (r = −0.70) ions; the two latter ones were responsible for the salinity which hampered the germination process of the soil substitutes. Moreover, quite similar correlations were obtained between the germination of Sinapis alba and the trace elements of the soil substitutes: Fe (r = −0.69), Cd (r = −0.72), Cu (r = −0.80), Pb (r = −0.78) and Zn (r = −0.74). However, negative and significant correlations in aqueous leachates were shown only with Ni concentration (r = −0.73). The relevance of these results for the effect of salinity on germination and the early growth of S. alba was discussed in detail and was confirmed with the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The study proved that the physicochemical characteristic of recycled wastes exhibited their potential usefulness for the reclamation of affected areas such as mine waste heaps.

Keywords: coal mining by-products; spoil tips; land rehabilitation; Sinapis alba (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4604/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4604/ (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:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4604-:d:792225

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 ().