Iran International Zeolite Conference (IIZC08) April 29 - May1, 2008, Tehran -Iran

IIZC-08-014 Zeolitic slow release fertilizer: A brief review

Abdollatif Gholizadeh* Agronomy department, facculty of agricultur, ghaiemshahr islamic azad university, mazandaran province, Iran . TEL: +989112742551 Email: lgholizadeh@gmail.com

Introduction Zeolites are a naturally occurring mineral group consisting of about 50 mineral types. Zeolite tuffs are widely distributed in huge deposits in different regions of Iran (1, 2). Based on official reports of Iranian geology survey, the second largest mineral deposits after iron minerals belong to natural zeolits. Soil scientist undoubtedly will encounter zeolite minerals more and more frequently in future years either as natural components of soils or as a result of their having been introduced into soils by humans, in efforts to increase plant and animal productivity. The following abstract therefore has been prepared as a brief review to acquaint Iranian soil scientists with the zeolitic slow release fertilizer. Controlled- Release Nitrogen and Potassium Fertilizer using Zeolite Zeolites have a rigid three-dimensional crystal structure with voids and channels of molecular size and a high cation exchange capacity (CEC) arising from the substitution of Al for Si in the silicon oxide tetrahedral units that constitute the mineral structure. Exchange sites typically show a marked preference for mono-valent over di-valent cations (3). Different zeolite types, and the same zeolite type from different deposits, vary in their chemical and physical properties and hence in their suitability for use in agriculture. Natural zeolite are particularly useful in agriculture because of their large porosity, high cation exchange capacity and their selectivity for NH4+ and K+ cations, as well as their physical stability (3). They can be used both as carriers of nutrients (e.g. NH4+ and K+) and as a medium with free exchangeable nutrient ions. Some natural zeolites contain considerable amounts of exchangeable K+ that can enhance plant growth in potting media. For example, Hershey et al. (4) provided data on the slow release effect of K from K-zeolite. The main use of natural zeolites in agriculture is, however, for ammonium (NH4+) exchange, storage and slow release. It has been shown that zeolite, with their specific selectivity for NH4+ , can take up NH4+ from farmyard manure, composts or NH4+ from ammonium bearing fertilizers, and store it temporarily in the internal void spaces before slow release (5). Many laboratory and field experiments carried out over the past decades show that NH4+-charged zeolites can act as slow-release fertilizer. Several studies have shown increased plant growth, in response to greater availability of NH4+ and decreased losses of N through nitrification, with the addition of zeolite (6, 7, 8, 5, 9). Increasing fertilizer use efficiency by adding natural zeolites to soluble N-fertilizer such as ammonium nitrate and urea as well as K fertilizers has been summarized by Ming and Allen (9). The application rates of zeolite amended fertilizers are relatively high, ranging from 400 Kg ha-1 to several tones per hectare.

Iran International Zeolite Conference (IIZC08) April 29 - May1, 2008, Tehran -Iran

Park and Komarneni (10) demonstrated the slow release of NH4+ from various zeolites treated with molten NH4NO3 and KNO3 over time. This modified zeolites with occluded ammonium and nitrate shows good promise to be a slow-release N fertilizer. Phosphate slow release fertilizer The zeolites (clinoptilolite), when saturated with mono-valent nutrient cations, such as NH4+ and K+, have been reported to increase the solubility of phosphate rock (PR) (11, 12, 13, 14, 15). The mechanism proposed to account for the solubilisation of PR is exchange-induced dissolution. It is proposed that the plant uptake of NH4+ or K+ frees exchange sites which are occupied by Ca2+, lowering the soil solution Ca2+ concentration and inducing further dissolution of PR. However, PR dissolution may also be the result of H+ generation through nitrification, or root H+ efflux. Conclusions Investigation about zeolite in soil science in Iran as slow release fertilizer is limited. As a conclusion, with regarding to possessing widely distributed of zeolite in huge deposits in different regions of Iran, it should be achieved by establishing a number of collaborations between soil scientist and other related scientist in this field. References 1- Hejazi M. and Ghorbani M., 1994. The geology of Iran (15): Bentonite and Zeolite, Iranian geological survey publications. 2- Kazemian H. 2000., Resent researchs on the Iranian natural zeolite resourses (A reviw), Access in Nanoporous Materials-11, Banff, Alberta, Canada, May 25-28. 3- Vaughan, D., 1978. Properties of natural zeolites. In: Sand, L., Mumpton, F. (Eds.), Natural Zeolites: Occurrence, Properties, Use. P ergamon Press, New York, pp. 353372. 4- Hershey DR, Paul JL and Carlson RM 1980. Evaluation of potassium-enriched clinoptilolite as a potassium source for potting media. Hortscience 15:87-89. 5- Mumpton FA 1999. La roca magica: use of natural zeolite in agriculture and industry. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 96:3463-3470. 6- Barbarick and Pirela 1984.Agronomic and horticultural uses of natural zeolite, In: Pond WG and Mumpton FA (eds.) Zeo-agriculture: use of natural zeolite in agriculture and aquaculture. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, USA.pp.93-103. 7- Ferguson, G., Pepper, I., 1987. Ammonium retention in soils amended with clinoptilolite. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 51, 231234. 8- Witter E and Lopez-real J. 1988. Nitrogen losses during the composting of sewage sludge, and the effectiveness of clay soil, zeolite and compost in adsorbing the volatilized ammonia. Biol. Wastes 23:279-294. 9- Ming DW and Allen ER 2001.use of natural zeolites in agronomy, horticulture, and environmental soil remediation. In: Bish DL and Ming DW (eds.) Natural Zeolites: Occurrence, Properties, applications. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 45. Min. Soc. Amer. Washington, USA, pp:619-654. 10- Park M and Komarneni S (1998).Ammonium nitrate occlusion vs nitrate ion exchange in natural zeolite. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62:1455-1459