Use of biofuel ashes for fertilisation of Betula pendula seedlings on nutrient-poor peat soil

Short-term effects of different doses (0.25; 0.5 and 1.0 kg m^?2) of wood ash (WA), peat ash (PA) and their mixture (MA) applied to peat substrate on the mineral composition and growth of seedlings of Betula pendula were investigated. The experiments were conducted with 1-year-old seedlings planted in vegetation pots. The pH of the substrate was increased by 0.4–0.9 units during the vegetation period compared to the control. The peat substrate was poor in nutrients, except N. The substrate treated with WA had higher concentrations of K, Mg, Mn, Fe, P, Zn, Cr and Pb, but a lower N concentration compared to the control. The substrate treated with PA had higher concentrations of Ca, Mg, N and P. The concentrations in the MA treatment were intermediate between WA and PA. The ashes increased K and lowered the concentration of Ca. A decrease in N in seedlings was found under the influence of WA and MA. An increase in K and P was found in all compartments of seedlings, while the concentrations of Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Cd and Cr in seedlings were affected irregularly depending on types and doses of ashes used. The uptake of Cd, Cr and Pb did not reach phytotoxic levels; however, increased concentrations of Cd and Pb were found in roots. A positive influence of ash application on growth was found. The heights and root collar diameters of all ash-fertilised treatments exceeded those of the control seedlings in most cases.     

Characterization of Waste and Reclaimed Green Sand Used in Foundry Processing

Silicon - The aim of this study is to discuss the importance of characterization of green, waste green and reclaimed sand. The transformations and changes which take place in the green sand, are...     

Performance optimization of dewatering of coal fine tailings using Box–Behnken design

The Box–Behnken design of experiments was employed to optimize the effect of variables on the settling performance of coal fine. Variable parameters considered in the study were pulp density, pH, and flocculant dosage, and their influence was discussed using 3D surface plot. The study showed that a pulp density of 6% solid (w/w) was the most favorable condition indicated a settling rate of 221 mm/min and pH of 7.5 and flocculant dosage of 14.58 gpt were found to be the optimum condition. The empirical models developed showed a correlation coefficient (between experimental and predicted values) of 0.99 for settling rate.     

Dissolution Kinetics of Iron from Low-Grade Mn Ore and Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

In this study an attempt has been made to increase Mn/Fe ratio in dump Manganese ore fines so that it can be used for the production of ferromanganese. For this purpose non-coking coal was used as reductant and dilute hydrochloric acid as leaching medium for the roasted ore. The effects of acid strength, leaching time, leaching temperature, stirring speed, ore particle size and pulp density have been studied. The dissolution of iron follows the kinetic model 1 ? 2x/3 ? (1 ? x)^2/3 = k_dt. Thus product layer diffusion is the controlling mechanism and the activation energy has been determined to be 26.23 kJ/mol at 40–95 °C. Another set of experiments have been conducted according to 2³ full factorial design, and regression equation for iron dissolution has been developed.     

Recovery and Characterization of Nickel Oxalate and Oxide Obtained from Spent Methanation Catalysts

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - In this paper, hydrometallurgical extraction and characterization of nickel from spent methanation catalyst composed of components NiO, Al2O3, Fe2O3,...     

Recovery of Ultra-Fine Iron Ore from Iron Ore Tailings

Many attempts has been taken for further utilisation of the tailings and slimes through different routes i.e. beneficiation, agglomeration etc. Though the slimes and tailings contain huge ultra fines, conventional beneficiation methods many not be much effective for handling because of particle size limitations. Physicochemical method i.e. selective flocculation is a process for handling the ultrafine particles present in the tailings. Review shows that selective flocculation technique have very limited commercial application. Here the study focuses on the application of selective flocculation process for beneficiation of synthetic mixtures of iron ore and kaolinite as well as iron ore tailings. Results show that it is possible to achieve 65.78(%) of Fe, with 2.65% Al₂O₃, 3.66 SiO₂ (%) in the concentrate using synthetic mixture feed and more than 60% of Fe is obtained from natural iron ore tailings.