My experiment was testing to see weather or not this sludge could be mixed with soil to better enhance this. I tested this out in two different ways. One I went and mixed 1/3 sludge into 2/3 soil. I did it this way so it would be easy for a farmer to calculate it out into his fields. I was looking for how well the mixture held soil so maybe it could help dryer areas in their fields by saving more water or it not drying out as fast. The second part was testing the PH level so I wasn't throwing in very acidic or basic materials into their soil.
Side Notes: I went and did a little research on the sludge to see what I could find. I couldn't find much but with the help of a MSDS Mrs. Lee gave us I found out the sludge contains, Cellulose (wood pulp), Calcium Carbonate (lime), Silicon (clay) and Aluminum. Then I went to the internet to see their chemical formulas to get a background on what they are made of.
Cellulose (wood pulp)- Chemical Formula: C6H10O5
Calcium Carbonate (lime)- Chemical Formula: CaCO3
Silicon (clay)-Chemical Formula: SiO2
Aluminum- Chemical Formula: Al
Experiment: I had to find a way to calculate this as closely as I could. I had to get (out of three) one part sludge and two parts soil so the sludge did not over power the soil. I was running two beakers: Beaker one weighed 146.485g. This is going to be my sludge mix. Beaker two weighed 143.055g. After weighing the two beakers I went and put soil into the container with a final weight of 267.83g. I had put 124.775g of soil into the beaker. So I had to match this weight but with a soil sludge mix. This meant taking 124.775g and dividing it by three to get equal parts. So 124.775g/3= 41.59g. 41.59g is the amount of sludge I need to put into the 400mL beaker. Then I took 41.59g-124.775g and got 83.18g which gave the amount of soil to out in. So to get all that weighed out correctly I had to put beaker two onto the ballance weighing out at 146.485g I then had to add exactly 41.59g of sludge which would come out to be 188.078g. Then adding 83.185g of soil would come out to be 271.263g which is exactly what I needed.
I then had to add equal parts water to test the experiment. I decided to add 100mL of water. Enough to calculate weight and enough to have an observational deduction. After adding water I then weighed them again. Beaker one was at 365.1g and beaker two at 371.71g.
Now I needed to let it sit for 48hours in our greenhouse out back before I would weigh it again to get the conclusion. While I was waiting I went and tested the PH levels of the soil, the sludge, and the soil sludge mix. I did this so if a farmer added this to his field he would know just how much it would effect the PH levels.
PH levels:
Soil: 6.58PH
Sludge: 6.29PH
Soil Sludge mix: 6.21PH
So this is a decent range for soil to be at. Its not to acidic and not to basic.
After 48Hours We weighed both of the beakers and the results came back to beaker one (sludge soil mix) losing 4.83g of weight, and beaker two (soil) losing 17.2g weight. I then went and did an observational test and found the the mix looked and felt wetter than the plain soil.
Pictures:
Sludge Soil Mix plain dry untouched soil watered experimental soil
Conclusion: Doing this experiment I found that this could be a possible fertilizer. The chemicals in the sludge wasn't to acidic and with some of them having Oxygen's and Hydrogen's the water was able to bond better with the mix rather than the plain soil. I do not know weather or not we could just use plain sludge over mix but so far calculations show that it would be a great fertilizer. You could also make this a company and it be worth the time and money because if you sold this to a company all this company would have to do is retrieve it bag it and sell it. If you turned it into your own business, you cut out the middle mad and just bag it and sell it right there at the paper mill. I find this economically and fundamentally sound and worth time to look in to.
Further Tests: There is only one concern I would ave over this entire experimenter and that wold have to be how well is the water bonded to the sludge soil mix. It evaporated just over 4 times less than just average soil did. So what if it is bonded with the soil so well that the plants can not get to the water that is in the soil. I did not have time to test this. You would do this test by planting multiple test subjects. Probably 5 soil sludge mix subject and 5 plain soil mix subjects. You would have to measure the exact amount of water added, soil in containers, plant growth and production, and how well each plant looks each day. Record bug activity and sun take and take that into account on the plants growth and health.
