Sustainable Management of Sewage Sludge Using Dhaincha (Sesbania bispinosa (Jacq.) W.Wight) Cultivation: Studies on Heavy Metal Uptake and Characterization of Fibers.

Document Type

Article

Department

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Abstract

In this study, the potential use of sewage sludge (SS) as a fertilizer source for cultivated Dhaincha (Sesbania bispinosa (Jacq.) W.Wight) crops was investigated. Field experiments were conducted using different doses of SS such as 0% (T0), 5% (T1), 10% (T2), and 15% (T3) to amend the soil (w/w). The findings showed that soil amended with SS significantly (p < 0.05) improved the response parameters of S. bispinosa with an increase in the dose of SS from 0% to 15%. In particular, the T3 treatment gave the best results (mean values) for plant growth and yield parameters such as plant height (380.59 cm), fresh weight (1.47 kg/plant), dry weight (0.27 kg/plant), base diameter (3.19 cm), seed yield (44.71 g/plant), total chlorophyll (3.15 mg/g fwt), carotenoids (0.88 mg/g fwt), carbohydrates (9.40 mg/g), and phenol (0.13 mg/g) contents. Moreover, the selected proximate and fiber characteristics of the S. bispinosa crop were significantly (p < 0.05) improved by the same treatment (T3); such as ash (7.25%), crude fiber (32.70%), crude protein (15.94%), lignin (24.60%), cellulose (37.25%), fiber weight (3.06 g/plant), stick weight (32.08 g/plant), fiber: stick ratio (0.10), fiber diameter (26.97 µm), ultimate tensile strength (855.98 MPa), strength (58.92 g/tex), density (1.54 g/cm3), and luster (45.65%) compared with the control treatment (T0). The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) studies showed that the S. bispinosa plant was capable of accumulating selected heavy metals from the soil following the order: Fe > Mn > Zn > Cu > Cd > Cr. The study suggested a sustainable approach for efficient soil fertilization and high-quality S. bispinosa fiber production that could minimize the environmental pollution caused by the unsafe disposal of SS.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

Agronomy

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13041066

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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