Can you use coal dust as a compost carbon additive???

Just thought this would be a usefoll way of using fossils!

I read about that and you can't.

Gemma Buell wrote:I read about that and you can't.

we dont use that word here!!!

My bad Andrew! I do know better .. mostly!

andrew curr wrote:

Gemma Buell wrote:I read about that and you can't.

we dont use that word here!!!

Gemma Buell wrote:My bad Andrew! I do know better .. mostly!

I won't say "can't", but I will say "won't'
I use things that many permies aren't comfortable with, but from what I've read, coal dust can contain various heavy metals and other toxic things, as well as being a general 'cide'.
BUT I couldn't find anything reliable/peer-reviewed; it would be interesting to see a clear 'why not' (or a 'why' I suppose, but I can't see it happening).

I seem to remember someone of note reccomend they shut down the brown coal in victoria and use it as soil ammendments

andrew curr wrote:I seem to remember someone of note reccomend they shut down the brown coal in victoria and use it as soil ammendments

Got any names andrew? Imagine Australia using it's mineral wealth to enrich it's land!
Or NZ doing that, for that matter
There was a plan here to mine lignite and convert it into fertiliser.
Luckily, the numbers haven't added up from the government's perspective, and it's off the agenda for now.

It may have been the bloke from hepburn springs!Im reading his book at the moment;Pathways beyond sustainability

Oh him, I dunno...

The first thing I thought of were the reports of all the heavy metals that are found in coal smoke (and therefore spread over the land and sea).

This is from the wikipedia article on Smoke. There are several elements there that I would be concerned about, but how they would be bound up in the non oxidized coal, I have no idea.

Smoke emissions may contain characteristic trace elements. Vanadium is present in emissions from oil fired power plants and refineries; oil plants also emit some nickel. Coal combustion produces emissions containing aluminium, arsenic, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, mercury, selenium, and uranium.

I personally would err on the side of caution.