Separation of some rice straw components and studying their effect on some hydro-physical properties of two different soils

Recycling the rice straw (RS) have been carried out using a simple laboratory procedure for different application purposes mainly the soil conditioning. Cellulose, Silica and Lignin could be extracted in a single process in almost pure form that is suitable for many environmental and industrial purposes. The raw RS, straw carbonized ash (RA), extracted Cellulose, Silica and Lignin were characterized by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), FT-IR and elemental analysis. The mentioned materials were studied as agricultural soil conditioners. They were added in different concentrations to two soil samples different in their properties. Bulk density (BD), total porosity (TP), water holding capacity (WHC), field capacity (FC) and hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) were estimated as examples of the studied soil physical properties. An enhancement in the studied properties for the sandy non-calcareous soil sample has been observed. For the more saline calcareous soil sample, the additives nearly have no effect on most of the studied properties. Some interaction between the soil particles, the additive particles and/or the absorbed water and may be present. The studied material may be promising as sandy soil conditioners.