Influence of Natural Zeolite on the Soil Nitrates Irrigated with Wastewater: Study on Application Method, Particle Size and Dosage of Zeolite

Zeolites are substances that have been renowned for their remarkable nitrogen adsorption capacity resulting of decrease in leaching rate of soil nitrogen. This research was conducted to study the effect of the zeolite dosage, zeolite particle size and the method of application on the nitrate leaching of the soil irrigated by treated wastewater (TWW). All of the adsorption tests were carried out in a 27 PVC columns with 11 cm diameter and 60 cm length. The experiments were consisted of 9 treatments and 3 replications including 2 zeolite application method (mixed and layered), 2 zeolite’s grain size (63-125 and <63 micrometer) and 2 zeolite dosage (2 and 4 percent). Zeolite powders were added to the soil in mixed or layered fashion. The soil columns were irrigated 13 times with TWW in a weekly period. In the 4th, 9th and 13th irrigation event, three samples were taken from input and output TWW introduced to columns to measure the change in nitrate concentration. The results were shown that nitrate absorption rate was increased by average of 164.3% and 350.7% in mixed and layered treatments, respectively compared to the control. The result showed that zeolite application method, irrigation event, zeolite’s grain size and dosage were statistically significant on nitrate absorption efficiency (P<0.01). It shows that as the zeolite size decrease the soil nitrate adsorption increases significantly. It increases when the zeolite percentage increases. The result show that the soil nitrate adsorption decreases as the irrigation event increase and soil adsorption potential degraded with irrigation events.