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The degree of complexation of microelement ions by the biodegradable chelating agent - IDHA was examined in the work. The tests were carried out in water and in a simulated fertilizer environment. In order to compare the obtained results, tests were also carried out for the commonly used EDTA. The performed analyzes allow to determine the influence of the presence of compounds containing macroelements on the degree of binding of microelement ions by the biodegradable IDHA and EDTA chelators. The obtained results make it possible to determine the optimal conditions for the chelation of cations by IDHA, which in the future may be used in the production of micronutrient fertilizers on a large scale.

Ammonium nitrate (AN) is considered to be a very hazardous and difficult to handle component of mineral fertilizers. Differential thermal analysis coupled with thermogravimetry and mass spectrometry was used to determine the possible inhibiting effect of selected magnesium compounds on thermal decomposition of AN. Each additive was mixed with AN to create samples with AN:magnesium compound mass ratios of 4:1, 9:1 and 49:1. Most of analyzed compounds enhanced thermal stability of ammonium nitrate, increasing the temperature of the beginning of exothermic decomposition and decreasing the amount of generated heat. Magnesium chloride hexahydrate was determined to accelerate the decomposition of AN while magnesium sulphate, sulphate heptahydrate, nitrate hexahydrate together with magnesite and dolomite minerals were defined as inhibiting agents.

Humic substances are widely applied in many branches of the industry. Their most well-known usage are agricultural and horticultural markets. A popular method of obtaining of mentioned compounds with satisfactory efficiency is an alkaline extraction of them from organic raw materials like peat, leonardite or lignite. The growing use of humic acids preparations is conditioned by improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. Despite that fact, the use of mineral fertilizers still dominates. Therefore, it seems interesting to produce agents containing both humic substances and traditional fertilizing elements. Such products could be applied as soil improvers. For that reason we have modified the International Humic Substances Society (IHSS) method of humic substances extraction by changing types of extractants and other solutions into solutions of main macroelements (NPK) for plants. The aim of this research was to determine the efficiency of humic acids extraction from polish peat depending on process temperature, its duration and concentration of extractant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibilities of using humic acids obtained from lignite in modern water treatment. The humic acids (HAs) were extracted from polish deposit of lignite – Sieniawa Lubuska by alkaline extraction using for this purpose following extractants: 0.1 M NaOH – HAs SN0.1 and 0.1 M Na4P2O7 – HAs SP0.1. In order to assess the impact of extractant on the sorption properties of the examined humic acids, their specific surface area and the content of active functional groups were determined. Thermo-oxidative behavior of examined humic substances was investigated employing the thermal analysis. The humic acids obtained from lignite were characterized also by 13C NMR spectroscopy. In addition to demonstrate the potential of examined humic acids as a low-cost reactive barrier material for environmental protection applications of toxic metals, sorption of Cr(VI) on the HAs was carried out using a batch method. The structure of obtained humic acids was undoubtedly influenced by the type of extractants used for their isolation. In structure of humic acids derived from lignite the aliphatic connections were dominated. Their participation in HAs obtained by using 0.1 M NaOH amounts to 78.9% and 58.5% for sample obtained using 0.1 M Na4P2O7. The highest content of all acidic functional groups - referred to total acidity (TA) is characterized by HAs obtained by extraction with 0.1 M Na4P2O7 and it was 7.69 mmol/g. In lignite humic acids the carboxylic groups, assigned to peak in the range of 160–190 ppm of 13C NMR spectra constituted for HAs SP0.1 – 3.54% and 2.40% for HAs SN0.1. The specific surface area for all humic acids samples was high from 370.0 to 394.4 m²/g and correlate with the results of humic acids acidity. The sorption of Cr(VI) on the surface of HAs depends strongly on the pH and Cr(VI) sorption increased with a decreasing pH. It was observed that the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) was the highest for SP0.1 and decreased from 79.8% to 66.5% with the rise of pH from 2 to 5. Therefore and because of the highly developed specific surface area of examined humic acids as well as the presence of hydrophilic functional groups resulting in their specific sorption and ion exchange properties can be an attractive and inexpensive option in the water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of new pig manure treatment and filtration process was carried out. The advantage of the worked out technology is the method of incorporation of crystalline phase into solid organic part of manure. The obtained new solid phase of manure contains about 50% of crystalline phase forming a filtration aid that enables high effectiveness of manure filtration. The filtration rate of manure separation into solid and liquid fractions with pressure filter may achieve 1300-3000 kg/m(2)/h. The method makes it possible to maintain an overall average pollutant removal performance 90% for the chemical oxygen demand COD, > 99% for the suspended solids SS, to 47% for the total nitrogen content. The obtained results showed that the proposed technology being efficient and simple offers a possible solution to pig manure problems.