Novel Nutrient Sources For Enhancing Soil Nutrient Recycling in Cropping Systems of the Prairies

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An important aspect of soil conservation is nutrient recycling. Nutrients that are taken from the soil by plants and animals need to be returned to the soil to maintain productivity and reduce our reliance on new sources of fertilizer nutrient. The expansion of the biofuel-bioenergy industry has led to the increased availability of nutrient containing co-products of these processes that have potential use as fertilizers. The proposed research program will investigate various co-products of bioenergy production and their potential to serve as valuable sources of plant available phosphorus and nitrogen when added to the soil. By-products that require evaluation for their potential impacts include co-products of ethanol production such as stillage, and combustion co-products like ashes and chars (biochars). For example, ashes and chars may be derived from processes like gasification and pyrolysis of woody and crop biomass, and as a means of disposal of crop and animal processing by-products like slaughterhouse wastes. Effects that will be evaluated include nutrient amounts, forms (speciation) and turnover, greenhouse gas production, crop recovery of added nutrient, and crop yield and quality. Use of these co-products as fertilizers provides an effective means for recycling the nutrients contained within. However, the co-products often contain nutrient in complex inorganic and organic forms which vary in solubility and plant availability. The proposed research will closely follow the fate of added nutrient in these co-products in the soil-plant system, under controlled environment conditions and in field trials, using a combination of conventional chemical as well as more novel spectroscopic investigative techniques. The performance of the bioenergy co-products will be compared to conventional commercial fertilizer nutrient sources.