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Characterisation and evaluation of humic acids extracted from urban waste as liquid fertilisers
Author(s) -
Ayuso Miguel,
Moreno Jose Luis,
Hernández Teresa,
García Carlos
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(199712)75:4<481::aid-jsfa901>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - humic acid , compost , chemistry , peat , sewage sludge , nitrogen , environmental chemistry , yield (engineering) , organic matter , green waste , chemical composition , sewage , organic chemistry , agronomy , environmental engineering , environmental science , materials science , fertilizer , biology , ecology , metallurgy
Abstract In this work a comparative study of humic acids extracted from organic wastes (sewage sludge and compost) and those currently used in the humic acid companies (humic acids from leonardite and peat) was carried out. Humic acids were characterised by means of chemical analysis (elemental and functional analysis) and spectroscopic techniques ( 13 C NMR, gel filtration and infrared spectra) in order to relate their characteristics with their effect on plant growth. Chemical and spectroscopic analysis emphasised the different nature of the studied humic acids. The humic acids derived from the less evolved organic materials (sludge and compost) showed higher aliphatic nature, higher nitrogen compound content, lower oxidation degree and more heterogeneous composition than those extracted from more evolved materials (peat and leonardite). However, all these differences did not lead to significant differences in plant growth, but all these humic acids showed an increase of the yield respect to the control. ©1997 SCI