Due to industrialization, soil heavy metal pollution is a growing concern, with humic substances (HS) playing a pivotal role in soil passivation. To address the long duration of the compost humification problem, coal fly ash (CFA) in situ catalyzes the rapid pyrolysis of the cotton stalk (CS) to produce HS to address Cd passivation. Results indicate that the highest yield of humic acid (HA) (8.42%) and fulvic acid (FA) (1.36%) is obtained when the CS to CFA mass ratio is 1:0.5, at 275 ℃ for 120 min. Further study reveals that CFA catalysis CS humification, through the creation of alkaline pyrolysis conditions, Fe 2 O 3 can stimulate the protein and the decomposition of hemicellulose in CS, and then, through the Maillard and Sugar-amine condensation reaction synthesis HA and FA. Applying HS-CS&CFA in Cd-contaminated soil demonstrates a 26.69% reduction in exchangeable Cd within 30 days by chemical complexation. Excellent maize growth effects and environmental benefits of HS products are the prerequisites for subsequent engineering applications. Similar industrial solid wastes, such as steel slag and red mud, rich in Fe 2 O 3 , can be explored to identify their catalytic humification effect. It could provide a novel and effective way for industrial solid wastes to be recycled for biomass humification and widely applied in remediating Cd-contaminated agricultural soil.
The scarcity of arable land and the problem of food security urgently called for a strategy of Remediation-by-Production (RBP). Biochar is a promising method for addressing Cd-contaminated soils, but the time required for remediation and the variability of long-term performance have a direct impact on the realization of the RBP strategy. We have developed a novel approach for remediating cadmium-contaminated flooded soil by utilizing lignin biochar (LBC) in combination with safe rice cultivation. The addition of 1 % LBC achieves efficient Cd passivation (CP: 90.89 %) before rice Cd uptake peaks. Meanwhile, LBC can increase soil organic matter and alter microbial community structure, decreasing the relative abundance of soil pathogenic bacteria from 5.12 % to 4.03 % while raising nutritional bacteria from 15.18 % to 28.82 %. Furthermore, LBC successfully reduced the accumulation of Cd in rice grains by 31.3 % ∼ 54.6 %, making rice dwarf, sturdy, and greener, and lowering the health risk coefficients of Cd across various age groups by Monte Carlo simulations. This study elucidated the critical role of humic substances of LBC in remediation time and performance and laid a solid theoretical foundation for promoting the application of biochar in soil contamination remediation and simultaneously realizing the safe production of crops.