Abstract
The presented research was focused on the analysis of the impact of biochar application into the soil on the radon exhalation process as a new issue of radiation protection in agriculture. Field measurements of the radon exhalation rate utilizing two methods—active and passive as well as laboratory measurements of the radon emanation coefficient were performed. In laboratory a soil samples with sunflower husk biochar were analysed using the accumulation chamber technique. At the final step the assessment of the effective dose for humans coming from radon exhalation from soil depending on biochar dose applied were evaluated. The doses of biochar applied in the analysed experimental fields were 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 Mg ha−1. The results show that biochar application into the soil contribute to a decrease in the emanation coefficient from a value around 7% to less than 2% with a simultaneous decrease in the radon exhalation rate from 4.4 to 14.8 mBq m−2 s−1 when the biochar dose increase from 0 to 100 Mg ha−1.
Highlights
Biochar is currently commercially used in agriculture in such a countries as Australia[26], United State of America[27] and China[28]
As the preliminary research proved the impact of biochar for radon emission from s oil[25] at the presented work we go into the details by showing the direct influence of the biochar for two parameters describing the radon emission from soil—the exhalation rate and the emanation coefficient and assess how the biochar application could influence on radon presence in air at bigger scale
We analyse the impact of biochar on radon emanation and radon exhalation rates based on in-field measurements and examination samples in laboratory
Summary
Biochar is currently commercially used in agriculture in such a countries as Australia[26], United State of America[27] and China[28]. For purpose of agriculture the typically biochar dose applied into the soil ranged from 10 to 100 Mg h a−122,30,31. We analyse the impact of biochar on radon emanation and radon exhalation rates based on in-field measurements and examination samples in laboratory. The aim of the research was to elucidate the effect of biochar produced from sunflower husk applied into the soil at five specific doses on the radon emanation and radon exhalation processes. Basing on the performed research we present the impact of the biochar application into the soil for state of the environment in the context of the radon emission. Taking into account the presented results and the literature data we investigate the perspectives for changes of outdoor radon emission for specific agro area where the biochar was applied around the world
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