WOOD AND MAIZE WASTE-DERIVED BIOCHAR FOR AGRICULTURAL SOIL AMENDMENT : SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION STUDY

TAN, MIN CHONG (2020) WOOD AND MAIZE WASTE-DERIVED BIOCHAR FOR AGRICULTURAL SOIL AMENDMENT : SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION STUDY. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Intensive agriculture has degraded global agricultural land and resulted in a food crisis. Biochar application can improve the soil quality and eventually increase the crop production to overcome the food shortage. This study aims to investigate the effect of wood and maize waste-derived biochar in soil amendment and improvement of crop yield. The deviation test was carried out on the crop yield, soil pH, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), and soil organic carbon (OC) to validate the biochar model developed using Agriculture Production System sIMulator (APSIM). The developed biochar model was used to investigate the effect of wood-derived biochar (WBC) and maize-derive biochar (MBC) at different application rates on soil pH, soil CEC, soil OC, and productivity of maize cropping system. Optimization was performed by varying the biochar application rates, biochar liming value, biochar CEC and biochar carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio to optimize the maize production. The simulation results revealed that for calcareous clay soil, as biochar treatment was increased from 6 to 30-ton ha-1, the soil pH increased from 14.5% to 17.77% for WBC, and from 4.24% to 19.77% for MBC. The soil CEC increased from 1.85% to 9.27% for WBC, and from 0.82% to 4.13% for MBC. The soil OC increased from 19.33% to 97.13% for WBC, and from 22.44% to 112.34% for MBC. For acidic sandy soils, the soil pH increased from 29.06% to 57.75% for WBC, and from 17.54% to 64.10% for MBC. The soil CEC increased from 4.64% to 23.33% for WBC, and from 2.15 to 10.73% for MBC. The soil OC increased from 37.37% to 188.35% for WBC, and from 44.01% to 218.45% for MBC. However, a small decrease in maize yield was obtained for clay from -0.0174% to -0.0078% for WBC, and from -0.0182% to -0.0181% for MBC. The maize yield for sandy soil increased from 0.0257% to 0.0731% for WBC but decreased from -0.8006% to 0.8449% for MBC. The optimization results showed that the biochar application rate and biochar liming value were significant parameters that influenced the maize yield. The highest maize yield was achieved with a biochar application rate of 9000 kg ha-1, biochar liming value of 43 Mg ha-1, biochar CEC of 63 cmolc kg-1, and biochar C/N ratio of 25. Overall, the simulation and optimization models developed in this study showed that WBC and MBC were feasible biochar to improve soil properties and enhance crop production.

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