Indexes of assessing N availability in sewage sludges

Biological and chemical methods were used in an attempt to estimate N availability in sewage sludges. The two biological methods, i.e. maize plants grown in pots, and soil-sludge mixtures incubated at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 weeks, and the four chemical methods, i.e. autoclave, 0.5 M KMnO₄, pepsin and 0.6 M HCl, were compared to determine N availability in twelve sewage sludges in a given soil. In the mineralization test, the aerobically treated sewage sludges gave higher mineralization rates than the anaerobically treated wastes. The simple correlation between available N, estimated from the plant N uptake during 6 weeks and N extracted by chemical methods showed that HCl and pepsin appeared to be the better single indexes. Prediction of availability of N in sewage sludges to plants in the growth chamber improved if N mineralized during the incubation period and extracted by several chemical methods were combined in a multiple regression analysis.