AGRICULTURAL UTILIZATION OF MAOMING OIL SHALE ASH
WANG JIANQIU
University of Petroleum
Beijing 100083, China
XU JIALIN
WANG HONGQI
Beijing Normal University
Beijing 100875, China
LI LIHUA
Maoming Petrochemical Company
| Mineral matter accounts for 60-80 % of oil shale, so a tremendous amount of solid
waste during pyrolysis or burning of oil shale is discarded, occupying land and causing pollution to the environment.
The oil shale pyrolysis plants in Maoming Petrochemical Company in China have been operated for 30 odd years and
cumulatively more than 200 million tons of shale ash covers a dumpyard of 7 sq. km. The leached water already causes
direct damage to farmland and fishpond. The present study deals with samples from different depths of the dumpyard and makes a comprehensive analysis of the elements and matter useful and harmful to plants and crops. Experiments show that high potassium content in Maoming shale ash is good for plant growth and the cadmium content at some sampling points is slightly higher than the national standard. Field tests of growing peanuts and soybean succeeded with allowable heavy metal and benzopyrene contents in the edible parts. Agricultural use of shale ash improves environmental quality and makes use of wasteland being economically promising. |