Chemical and Physical Changes of Soil Amended with Biochar

The transformation of poultry litter waste through the pyrolysis process produces a product called biochar which, applied to the soil, improves its characteristics. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of biochar produced from poultry litter wastes, submitted to pyrolysis at 350 degrees C on soil chemical and physical characteristics. For this, an experiment was carried out involving soil incubation treatments during 100 days with six doses of biochar equivalent to 0.0, 2.02, 4.05, 6.07, 8.10, and 10.12 t ha(-1), calculated by the base saturation method, with correction levels from 61 to 87%. After the incubation, soil samples were physically and chemically analyzed. Biochar doses promoted significant increase in pH, electrical conductivity, potassium, sodium, carbon, phosphorus, and base saturation, and decrease in potential acidity and in the soil cation exchange capacity contributing to the increase of soil fertility. The application of the biochar to the soil decreased the bulk density and increased porosity, field capacity, wilting point, and available water for plants. In general, the use of the biochar demonstrates great potential of it as a soil amendment.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that biochar produced from poultry litter waste through pyrolysis can effectively improve soil properties and fertility; the application of biochar significantly affects the chemical properties such as pH, electrical conductivity, ion exchange capacity and physical properties such as bulk density, porosity of the soil.