Effect of Biochar Addition on Mechanism of Heavy Metal Migration and Transformation in Biogas Residue Aerobic Compost

Abstract

In this study, biogas residue fermented by biogas engineering was used as compost raw material, and different quality biochar was added in the composting process to explore the effect of biochar on the transformation of heavy metals in the composting process. The composting process was comprehensively analyzed with the potential ecological risk assessment of heavy metals and redundancy analysis. The addition of 10.0% biochar during composting had a strong passivation effect on exchangeable Cu and Cd, with passivation rates of 11.75 and 63.89%, respectively; the addition of 2.5 and 7.5% biochar had strong passivation ability for exchangeable Zn and Pb, and the passivation rates were 15.26 and 45.02%, respectively. At the end of composting, the potential ecological risk indexes of each treatment were T4 (10.0% biochar) > T3 (7.5% biochar) > T2 (5.0% biochar) > T1 (2.5% biochar) > CK (no biochar added). The risk of heavy metal pollution during the aerobic composting of biogas residue was low, which significantly reduced secondary pollution during the composting process.

Keywords

• biochar
• biogas residue
• aerobic composting
• heavy metal
• environmental risk assessment