Biofunctional Characteristics of Lignite Fly Ash Modified by Humates: A New Soil Conditioner

Fly ash superficially modified with humic substances from the Megalopolis lignitic power plant was prepared and evaluated for agricultural uses. UV-vis spectrophotometry and IR spectroscopy revealed that fly ash shows high sorption efficiency towards humic substances. Adsorption proceeds stepwise via strong Coulombic and hydrophophic forces of attraction between guest and host materials. Langmuir, Freundlich, BET, Harkins-Jura, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models were employed to evaluate the ongoing adsorption and shed light to the physicochemical properties of the sorbent-adsorbate system. Humic substances desorption and microbial cultivation experiments were also carried out to examine the regeneration of the humates under washing and explore the possibility of this material acclimatizing in real soil conditions, both useful for biofunctional agricultural applications.