Aromatic Coconut Biochar Types and Rainfall Rates Affect Soil Nutrient Retention from Swine Wastewater

Soil and water contamination with high nutrient concentrations from swine farms poses a risk to human and animal health. This study investigated the effects of biochar derived from young aromatic coconut husk (CH), coconut shell (CS), and their mixture (CHCS) on nutrient retention in biochar-amended soil columns for variable synthetic swine wastewater (SW) loading based on water use for piglets and fattening stalls. A 0.9 L leaching test column contained 3 g of each biochar type mixed with 300 g of soil. It was loaded daily with synthetic SW for 42 days at loading rates of 30 mL/day (piglet SW) and 60 mL/day (fattening SW). CH-amended soil was then selected to investigate the effect of rainfall rates at 0 (R0), 25 (R25), 70 (R70) and 140 (R140) mL/4 days on soil nutrient retention. Leachate was collected every 7 days to analyze nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. The results showed that CH-amended soil had the highest retention of total nitrogen (TN) and phosphate among all treatments. For piglet SW, TN retention in CH-amended soil was 1.4–1.6 times higher than with CS and CHCS treatments, probably due to enhanced ammonium retention on exchangeable sites associated with the high cation exchange capacity of CH. High phosphate retention in CH-amended soil was linked to Ca 2+ release from CH, facilitating phosphate precipitation. Moreover, CH-amended soil at R25 showed the highest ammonium retention but inhibited seed germination. Overall, CH-amended soil effectively retained nutrients and was suitable as a seedling growth medium, except under the R25 rainfall condition.