A single-factor field experiment was carried out at the Cultivar Evaluation Station in Szczecin-Dąbie in 2008-2010. In the experiment, the compost produced with municipal sewage sludge by the GWDA method and high-calcium brown coal ash (furnace waste) were used. The perennial energy crop was a test plant - Virginia fanpetals (Sida hermaphrodita Rusby). It results from the carried out study that Virginia fanpetals biomass contained on average the most manganese (24.7 mg∙kg-1 d.m.), lead (2.50 mg∙kg-1 d.m.) and zinc (50.5 mg∙kg-1 d.m.) in 2008, while the most cadmium (0.33 mg∙kg-1 d.m.), copper (3.78 mg∙kg-1 d.m.) and nickel (2.57 mg∙kg-1 d.m.) in 2010. Average cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc contents in test plant biomass were higher, respectively by 14.3%, 10.0%, 7.3%, 19.3%, 29.1% and 6.9%, in the objects where municipal sewage sludge compost had been applied without and with addition of high-calcium brown coal ash when compared to those where only calcium carbonate or high-calcium brown coal ash had been introduced into the soil. The differences in cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc contents in Virginia fanpetals biomass between particular experimental objects were not signifi cant. The least zinc was absorbed by the test plant biomass in the object with high-calcium brown coal ash being applied in the fi rst year of study and annually. When evaluating the dynamics of heavy metals uptake, it was found to be the lowest in the fi rst year of study (ranging from 4.40% to 11.0%). It increased in the second and the third year of study, oscillating between 29.9% and 65.7%. The degree of heavy metals accumulation in Virginia fanpetals biomass differed, depending on the fertilisation applied. The bioaccumulation factor of cadmium, copper and nickel after three study years was average, while that of manganese, lead and zinc was intense.
Application of ash and municipal sewage sludge as macronutrient sources in sustainable plant biomass production