Environmental risk for application of ammonia-soda white mud in soils in China

In recent years,some reports,mainly from Chinese research,show that there has been an increasing trend in the use of ammonia-soda residue(ASR)(or called ammonia-soda white mud) as a soil conditioner in farmlands.Up to now,the studies on ASR have focused on its utilization for acid soil amendment in agriculture,but few studies have assessed its environmental risk.ASR contains pollutant elements such as mercury(Hg),cadmium(Cd),copper(Cu) and fluorine(F) and the purpose of this study was to review research on the environmental impacts of ASR application in agriculture.Observations obtained from 23 research reports indicate that the concentrations of Hg,Cd,Cu,F and Cl(0-170,0.01-2.8,4.5-200,2000-24700 and 1 600-188 000 mg kg^-1,respectively) in ASR may exceed the limits(≤0.5,≤0.3 and ≤50 mg kg^-1 for Hg,Cd and Cu,respectively) of Chinese Risk Screening Values for Soil Contamination of Agricultural Land(GB 15618-2018 2018) or the refereed critical value(≤800 and ≤200 mg kg^-1 for F and Cl,respectively) based on Chinese research.The concentrations of the elements Hg,Cd,Cu,F and Cl in the leachate of ASR detected by the extraction tests also exceed the limits(Class IV-V) of the Chinese Standard for Groundwater Quality(GB/T 14848-2017 2017).Based on the above results,it is suggested that ASR without any pretreatment for reducing harmful pollutants should not be used for soil remediation or conditioning of farmlands,to ensure soil health,food safety and environmental quality.

Environmental risks for application of iron and steel slags in soils in China: A review

Iron and steel slags are smelting wastes, mainly including blast furnace slag(BFS) and steel slag(SS) produced in the iron and steel industry. Utilization of iron and steel slags as resources for solving the problem of slag disposals has attracted much attention with increasing iron and steel smelting slags in China. Because the iron and steel slags contain calcium(Ca), magnesium(Mg), phosphorus(P), and silicon(Si), some have tried to use them as Si-and P-fertilizers, for producing Ca-Mg-P fertilizers, or as soil amendments in agriculture. However, in the iron metallurgical process, several pollutants in iron ores can inevitably transfer into iron and steel slags, resulting in the enrichment of pollutants both in BFS(mainly nickel(Ni), copper(Cu), mercury, zinc(Zn),cadmium(Cd), chromium(Cr), arsenic, lead, selenium, fluorine(F), and chlorine(Cl)) and in SS(mainly Ni, Cr, Cd, Zn, Cu, F, and Cl), in which some of pollutants(especially Cr, Ni, F, and Cl) exceed the limits of environmental quality standards for soils and groundwater. The elements of manganese, barium,and vanadium in iron and steel slags are higher than the background values of soil environment. In order to ensure soil health, food safety, and environmental quality, it is suggested that those industrial solid wastes, such as iron and steel slags, without any pretreatment for reducing harmful pollutants and with environmental safety risk, should not be allowed to use for soil remediation or conditioning directly in farmlands by solid waste disposal methods, to prevent pollutants from entering food chain and harming human health.