Quality of Acid Base Treated Wood Coal and its Effect on Soil Behavior

Powdered wood coal in 32 different portions (each 250g) was treated individually with solutions (1.0L each) 4% HCl andH2SO4, 15% HNO3,5%NaOH and KOH abbreviated as C, F, N,S, P and their combination i.e.CF, CN, CS, CP, FN, FS, FP, NS, NP, SP, CFN, CFS, CFP, FNS, FNP, FSP, CNS, CNP, CSP, FSP, NSP, CFNS, CFNP, CFSP, CNSP, FNSP, CFNSP. Quality of the treated wood coal and their effect on soil pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), acidity, total nitrogen and other minerals was studied. pH and EC of the treated wood coal ranged from 1.48 to 11.9 and 3.45 to 28.4μs/dl respectively. Soil EC was lower 96.60 μS/dl in untreated soil while highest 190.10 μS/dl in NSP treated soil. Acidity of the treated soil ranged from 0.97g/L in S to 1.41 g/L in FN treated soils. The highest value (6.58x10^-3%) of total nitrogen was in CFNSP treated soil. An increase in soil pH was noted where treatments variation ranged from 8.10 to 8.32 in CFP and CNS respectively. The effect of treatments on soil minerals in mg/kg indicated greatest variation in Fe from 2.759 to 5.358, Mn from 0.324 to 0.73, Na from.9 to 11.9 and K from 8.60 to 15.30 while other minerals like Cu, Zn, P, Pb and Ni showed moderate variability. It was concluded that acid base treatment of the wood coal resulted in pH, EC and minerals changes which might have good or bad effect on plants grown in those soils.