Nature Communications (Jan 2024)

Waste milk humification product can be used as a slow release nano-fertilizer

  • Yanping Zhu,
  • Yuxuan Cao,
  • Bingbing Fu,
  • Chengjin Wang,
  • Shihu Shu,
  • Pengjin Zhu,
  • Dongfang Wang,
  • He Xu,
  • Naiqin Zhong,
  • Dongqing Cai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44422-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Abstract The demand for milk has increased globally, accompanied by an increase in waste milk. Here, we provide an artificial humification technology to recycle waste milk into an agricultural nano-fertilizer. We use KOH-activated persulfate to convert waste milk into fulvic-like acid and humic-like acid. We mix the product with attapulgite to obtain a slow-release nano fulvic-like acid fertilizer. We apply this nano-fertilizer to chickweeds growing in pots, resulting in improved yield and root elongation. These results indicate that waste milk could be recycled for agricultural purposes, however, this nano-fertilizer needs to be tested further in field experiments.