Eco-friendly coatings composed of lignosulfonate-modified biopolymer and vegetable waxes for nitrogenous fertilizers

Abstract

Fertilizer coatings are seen as mandatory to protect the physical quality of fertilizer granules and they continue to be developed due to compliance with novel fertilizer types and most importantly with future regulations in environment and animal-plant health. As known, the bio-based contents are sustainable and eco-friendly compared to petroleum-based materials. However, there are common many types of coatings composed of unsustainable, costly and can be ecologically toxic contents such as paraffine or mineral oil. In this article, a comparative research study is presented to provide eco-friendly anticaking coatings composed of lignosulfonate-modified biopolymer and vegetable waxes instead of the conventional coatings. The main purpose of this research is to find out the alternative ingredients instead of a petroleum-derivatives in the conventional coatings. According to the results, anticaking coating containing lignosulfonate modified biopolymer showed improvements on granule structure of calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer and showed the best anticaking performance compared to other coating types. Vegetable-based coatings, on the other hand, gave results in appropriate intervals, especially at low concentrations, and showed a valuable way to develop better versions in future studies. As a result, it is seen that biopolymers can replace paraffin-based products.