Radical-Induced Abiotic Humification of Food Waste and Wood Ash into Fulvic-Like Fertilizer within 1 Hour
The enhancement of humification in food waste (FW) is critical for ecological conservation and resource recycling. However, as a common humification method, traditional composting had the disadvantages of a long cycle (at least 20 days) and cumbersome condition control (ventilation/temperature control to accelerate the reaction process), which highlighted the urgency of developing efficient utilization technologies. This work developed a novel hour-scale technology using KOH-activated persulfate (KOH/PS) with wood ash (WA) for moisture adjustment to rapidly convert FW to FLA-enriched fertilizer. Results showed that reactive oxidative species, including 1O2, HO•, SO4•–, and O2•–, were generated in the system, playing key roles in degradation and polymerization of FW/WA. The humification was completed within 45 min, producing fertilizer with 16 wt % FLA content. At the same time, the added PS and KOH were transformed into K2SO4 fertilizer, realizing full recycling. Pot experiments demonstrated significant yield increases of 288%, 119%, 163%, 131%, and 68% compared to Blank, FW, WA, FW/WA, and K2SO4 control groups, respectively, with good biosafety. This study provided a rapid and low cost artificial humification approach for FW, showing a huge application prospect.
Authors
- Yajuan Li
- Chunhuo Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3049-9928)
- Xin Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5974-3990)
- Weijian Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4195-4551)
- Kaimin Zhu
- Dongqing Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5279-2415)
- Tao Zhang
- Dongfang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3720-8297)
- Shihu Shu
- Guorong Ni
- Yanping Zhu
- Shaofeng Dun
- Pan Zhao
Institutions
- Donghua University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Ministry of Natural Resources (CN)
- HAMR Industries (United States) (US)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Microbiology (CZ)
- ES Technology (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center (CN)
- Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (AU)
- Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security
- Jiangxi Agricultural University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
- Published
- 2026-04-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c00791
- Primary Topic
- Plant Growth Enhancement Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Government of Jiangxi Province
- Donghua University
- Shanghai Municipal Commission of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
- Department of Science and Technology of Inner Mongolia
- Taishan Industry Leading Talents
- Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Guangxi Key Research and Development Program