Abstract:
Densifying biochar loaded with nutrients can result in enhancing the conveyance and handling of
the biochar. According to a hypothesis nutrient-loaded biochar tablets have the tendency for slowly
releasing the nutrients embedded, in a synchronous manner. The objectives of this research study
were to formulate the plant-nutrient tablets mainly consisting of biochar and characterization of
the formulated plant-nutrient tablets. Different plant-nutrient tablets namely Copper-nutrient
tablet, Boron-nutrient tablet, and manganese-nutrient tablet are formulated using the biochar
powder and other needed additives which are essential in the process of tablet-making. Directly
compressing the powder of biochar and salts (source of the nutrients) resulted in no formation of
tablets, because of the low/or no binding capability. After the addition of binder i.e., 15% starch
solution and filler tragacanth gum, tablets were formulated which were hard enough and fulfilled
the basic criteria of the tablet making process. The best results for the harder tablets were achieved
after performing multiple batches run with different combinations of the amounts of the ingredients
on the single punch tableting machine. After making nutrient tablets for copper, boron, and
manganese multiple tests were run on these plant-nutrient tablets keeping in view the prospects of
the current study. FT-IR spectroscopy and XRD analysis confirmed the presence of the salts which
were added as the source for the required nutrients i.e., copper sulphate pentahydrate, boric acid,
and manganese sulphate monohydrate. Qualitative dissolution analysis shows that plant-nutrient
tablets do not disintegrates into its components too fast and takes more than three months which
is an important point in the current study while the hardness test confirms that plant-nutrient tablets
formulated are hard enough that they can be transported after proper packaging. Prospects of this
study include a long-term field study for carrying out the pot experiment and eventually confirming
its findings
