Beverage-Industry Wastewater Treatment Sludge as a Soil Amendment for Rice: Nutrient Enrichment, Crop Performance, and Moisture Retention

Kier Gasga, Niño Rebuya

Abstract

Beverage-industry wastewater treatment sludge contains organic matter and plant nutrients that may be recovered through land application, but its agronomic performance is source-dependent. This study evaluated air-dried sludge from a beverage-production wastewater treatment facility as an amendment for rice (Oryza sativa L., NSIC Rc23) in an outdoor pot experiment. Five treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design with three replicate pots per treatment: unamended heavy paddy soil; a commercial fertilizer benchmark; and sludge at 2.5%, 5.0%, and 7.5% (w/w) based on the total soil-sludge mixture mass. Each pot contained one seedling. Growth and yield were measured at harvest. Moisture retention was measured for 96 hours using one soil sample from each replicate pot and summarized as the area under the water-content curve (AUC). Sludge contained 3.160% total N, 1,346.72 mg kg-1 elemental P, and 30.927% organic C. Grain yield was 18.49 g pot-1 in the control and 29.38 and 31.99 g pot-1 at 5.0% and 7.5% sludge, respectively. These two sludge treatments shared a Tukey’s HSD grouping with the commercial fertilizer benchmark (32.29 g pot-1), but the shared grouping does not demonstrate equivalence. Moisture retention AUC was 36.3% and 39.9% higher than the control at sludge levels of 5.0% and 7.5%, respectively. Bulk density and total porosity did not differ among treatments. The sludge showed agronomic potential under the tested pot conditions. Field use requires contaminant and pathogen screening, salinity assessment, crop-tissue analysis, and replicated field validation.

Keywords

circular bioeconomy; industrial biosolids; NSIC Rc23; organic carbon; water conservation

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.20961/carakatani.v41i4.125731

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