Testing the effect of redirected glycerol by-products on the nutrition providing ability of the soil

László Tolner^A, Imre Czinkota^A, Gabriella Sándor^B, Kata Tolner ^A

 ^A Szent István University, Faculty of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Gödöllő, Hungary

^B Folkloristic Highschool, Fót, Hungary

Abstract: During the production of biodiesel significant waste is produced of which the utilization is still to be solved. Such a material is glycerol. The experiment consisted of two periods. In the first period we tested the effect of the redirected glycerol by-product on the mineral nitrogen content of the soil in an incubation experiment of 2 weeks. In the second period for 2 months we tested the effect of the redirected glycerol by-products on the development of the plants with Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) indicator plant. Based on the tests it can be said that as an effect of adding glycerol, the active substance of the nitrogen fertilizer was immobilized. As the effect of 1% glycerol treatment the ammonium nitrate - the active substance of the nitrogen fertilizer - gets more than 50% immobilized in 2 days in the tested sandy soil. After 5 days, it gets technically 100% immobilized. The immobilized nitrogen is protected from being washed out, which is important for the nutrition, fertilizer technology and environment protection. The immobilization of the nitrogen can also be proved with the optical observation of the ryegrass and with the image analysis after the observation.

Key Words: plant growing, pot experiment, image processing, soil biotesting.