Growth of rice in acid soils

amended with biochar from

gasifier or stove derived from
rice husks, with or without
biodigester effluent

Sisomphone Southavong
Champasack University
spdeuk@yahoo.com
19 Dec 2010 1
 Introduction
• Viet Nam has approximately two
million ha of acid sulphate soils, a
large proportion of which are in
the Red River Delta in the north
and the Mekong Delta in the
south (
http://ssc.undp.org/uploads/media/A
).
•
• Biochar is the carbon-rich product
2
 Introduction
• The pH of Biochar produced by
gasification of bagasse and rice
husks is 9.5 (Kong Saroeun and
Preston 2008).
•
• As these soil conditioners have
high pH value, they should be
used in the low pH soil (acid soil)
because they can increase the pH
of the soil and thus increase the 3
 Introduction
• Effluent is a nutrient-rich fertilizer
derived from anaerobic
biodigestion of animal manure
•
• When applied to crops, it can lead
to increases in biomass yield and
a higher content of crude protein
eg. In Chinese cabbage (San Thy
and Pheng Buntha 2005), water
spinach (Kean Sophea and 4
 Hypothesis
• On the acid soils in Vietnam it is
expected there will be positive
effects from application of biochar
in combination with biodigester
effluent.
•
• The biochar from an updraft (TLUD)
gasifier stove will have similar
properties in stimulating plant
growth as biochar from a 5
 Objective
• To determine effect of biochar from
different sources and effluent
from the biodigester (charged
with pig manure) on growth of
rice in acid soils

6
Materials and
Methods

7
 Location and duration
• An Giang
University,
An Giang
province,
Vietnam


• The
experiment
covered a
period of 40 8
 Experimental design
• 20 treatments were compared in a
Completely Randomised Design
(CRD), arranged in 5*2*2 factorial
with 3 replications


• Bio-test was used in 1 kg plastic

bag capacity


• The factors were

– Level of biochar : 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8%
– Type of biochar: Gasifier or Stove 9
 Experimental materials

Biochar produced from Biochar produced from

gasifier brought from gasifier stove
Cambodia

Acid
soil

10
 Biochar produced from
stove
The 9 KW downdraft A n updraft gasifier stove
gasifier ( Ankur
Technologies ) gasifier
installed in CelArid , 11
Cambodia
General view of the The plug - flow tubular
experimental layout polyethylene biodigester
for effluent , charged
with pig manure

12
 Rice seeds
• Local varieties, soaked over night
in warm water before planting
•
• Five seeds in each bag
•
• When seeds germinated, 2 to 4
plants were removed to leave only
1 seedling in each bag for growing
period of 30 days
• 13
 Fertilizing and water supply
• Effluent was applied very 5 days for
30 days
•
• The quantities were calculated
according to the N content of the
effluent to give the equivalent of
100 kg N/ha
•
• Water was applied twice a day
(morning and afternoon 14
 Data collection
• Height measured at 5, 10, 15, 20,
25 and 30 days
•
• T h e co m p le te p la n t re m o v e d fro m
th e b a g a n d th e a e ria l p a rt
se p a ra te d fro m th e ro o ts w h ich
w e re w a sh e d fre e o f so il, w e ig h
fo r g re e n b io m a ss ; ro o t le n g th
a lso re co rd e d
• 15
 Chemical analysis
• The rice samples were analysed for
DM
•
• The soil samples were analysed for
pH, DM, OM, water holding
capacity (WHC) and CEC at the
beginning and at the end of the
trial
•
16
 Statistical analysis
• The data were analyzed according
to the General Linear Model
option in the ANOVA programme
of the Minitab (2000) software.
•
• Sources of variation were level of
biochar, effluent, biochar type,
interaction level of
biochar*effluent, level of
biochar*biochar type, 17
Results and discussion

18
 Chemical composition of
experimental materials

Table 2: Chemical composition analysis

Composition DM, % N, mg/liter OM, % in pH
DM
Soil 79.5 N/A 3.23 4.5
Biochar stove 94.3 N/A 35.6 9.8
Biochar gasifier 50.7 N/A 27.9 9.5
Effluent N /A 600 N/A N/A

19
 Effect of biochar on Water Holding
Capacity (WHC)

Effect of biochar type and Relationship between level of

level of biochar on water biochar and water holding
holding capacity of soil , % capacity of soil , %
20
21
Effect of biochar type and level of
biochar on rice aerial biomass

22
Effect of biochar type and level of
biochar on root biomass

23
Relationship between level of Relationship between level of
biochar and green aerial part biochar and fresh weight of
biomass , g rice root , g

24
Effect of biochar and effluent on
fresh biomass, g

25
Effect of biochar and effluent on
fresh root biomass

26
27
Effect of biochar on soil pH

28
Effect of biochar and biodigester
effluent on CEC

29
 Conclusions
• The biochar produced by stove
seems to have greater effect on
green biomass of rice at 2 or 4%
• Highly significant increase in
biomass yield when biodigester
effluent was applied.
• Application of biochar had a
positive effect on water holding
capacity with both types of
biochar (stove and gasifier) 30
 Conclusions
• Soil pH was increased due to
addition of biochar and it was
greater in soil with addition of
stove biochar than gasifier
biochar.


• The data are relatively new in

terms of using rice as bio-test.
More research is needed to be
done in terms of biochar source, 31
 Acknowledgment
• MEKARN program funded by SIDA-
SAREC project
•
• Can Tho University
•
• An Giang University/Staff
•
• All classmates
•
32
a n k y o u fo r y o u r a tte n tio
33