Element levels in birch and spruce wood ashes - green energy?
- Author(s)
- Clemens Reimann, Rolf Tore Ottesen, Malin Andersson, Arnold Arnoldussen, Friedrich Koller, Peter Englmaier
- Abstract
Production of wood ash has increased strongly in the last ten years due to the increasing popularity of renewable and CO2-neutral heat and energy production via wood burning. Wood ashes are rich in many essential plant nutrients. In addition they are alkaline. The idea of using the waste ash as fertiliser in forests is appealing. However, wood is also known for its ability to strongly enrich certain heavy metals from the underlying soils, e.g. Cd, without any anthropogenic input. Concentrations of 26 chemical elements (Ag, As, Au, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sb, Sr, Ti, and Zn) in 40 samples each of birch and spruce wood ashes collected along a 120 km long transect in southern Norway are reported. The observed maximum concentrations are 1.3 wt.% Pb, 4.4 wt.% Zn and 203 mg/kg Cd in birch wood ashes. Wood ashes can thus contain very high heavy metal concentrations. Spreading wood ashes in a forest is a major anthropogenic interference with the natural biogeochemical cycles. As with the use of sewage sludge in agriculture the use of wood ashes in forests clearly needs regulation
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Lithospheric Research
- External organisation(s)
- Geological Survey of Norway, Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute
- Journal
- Science of the Total Environment
- Volume
- 393
- Pages
- 191-197
- No. of pages
- 7
- ISSN
- 0048-9697
- Publication date
- 2008
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 1060 Biology, 105904 Environmental research
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/54d31839-750e-4bc8-be36-aae328acde2e