Project Number: 1265-12000-035-02
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2003
End Date: Aug 31, 2008

Objective:
This cooperative research proposal will investigate two key issues that are fundamental to the use of spent foundry sands (SFS) in manufactured topsoil blends. The first issue relates to fate and transport in the soil environment of metal and organic contaminants that may be present in SFS. The second issue relates to nutrient dynamics in blended topsoils that contain SFS. Specific project objectives will be to: · Determine the extent to which various contaminants and plant macronutrients could be leached from a blended topsoil material containing SFS, and identify soil characteristics and processes that control solubility and leaching. · Determine the extent of plant uptake of SFS contaminants and supply of plant available nutrients in a blended topsoil environment. · Compare quality characteristics and plant growth performance of commercially available topsoils and SFS-containing synthetic topsoil blends, and · Provide demonstration sites of beneficial utilization of SFS and technology and outcome transfer to the foundry industry, landscaping/turf/manufactured soil industries, and environmental regulatory agencies.

Approach:
Laboratory characterization, greenhouse column experiments, and field plot experiments will be used to achieve the above objectives. The project will utilize SFS representative of the three main categories of binder systems for core molds: PUNB/PUCB, PNB/FNB, and Shell. During year one of the project SFS, composts, and subsoil materials that will become components of manufactured topsoils will be characterized in the laboratory, and mineralization experiments of SFS-compost blends will be conducted. These materials will then be combined in various treatment combinations and placed in columns for plant growth and leaching experiments. Results of these experiments will provide data for conducting environmental risk assessment of SFS used in soil environments, for prediction of nutrient availability and loss from SFS-containing synthetic soil blends, and for validation of the by-product blend model developed at Ohio State University.