Hajar Taheri; Mehdi Ghobadinia; Hasan Tabatabaei; Habib Beygi; Hossein Kazemian
Abstract
Water shortage in agriculture leads to use of marginal water resources such as wastewater. Use of Zeolite as a soil improvement material is necessary for application of wastewater for irrigation. In this research, the effect of application method, amount, and size of the zeolite on the changes of the ...
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Water shortage in agriculture leads to use of marginal water resources such as wastewater. Use of Zeolite as a soil improvement material is necessary for application of wastewater for irrigation. In this research, the effect of application method, amount, and size of the zeolite on the changes of the electrical conductivity, pH, BOD5, sodium, and total calcium and magnesium of wastewater was studied while passing soil columns. To do this, two application methods (mixed and layered), two particle size range of zeolite (between 125 and 63 microns and smaller than 63 microns), two zeolite rates (2% and 4%), and four irrigations (first, fourth, ninth, and thirteenth) were studied in PVC columns of 10.5 cm inner diameter and 60 cm height. The experiments consisted of 9 treatments and 3 replications. The soil samples were irrigated 13 times with wastewater in a weekly interval. In irrigation cycles numbers one, four, nine, and thirteen, the mentioned factors were measured in the input and output of wastewater samples. Results showed that calcium and magnesium absorption rate increased by average of 75.7% and 142% in mixed and layered treatments, respectively, in comparison to the control. Removal efficiency for BOD5 was increased by average of 43.1% and 87% in mixed and layered treatments, respectively, in comparison to the control. Application of zeolite also increased sodium, pH, and electrical conductivity of soil columns.