The paper reviews the patent descriptions of methods for obtaining humic substances and the procedures used in their industrial production. Selected humus substances, obtained using three different methods, were also examined. In the first one, humic substances were obtained due to the hydrolytic-oxidative decomposition of lignosulfonate. The second one consists of alkaline extraction from brown coal. According to the third, humus substances were extracted from digested sewage sludge. In the obtained humus substances, molecular composition, inorganic impurities, IR spectrum, gravimetric analysis, and the % shares of fulvic and humic acids were determined. The physico-chemical properties of the tested substances were also assessed. Based on the study’s results, the advantages and disadvantages of the obtained humus substances were determined, and methods for their modification to improve utility values were provided. Research on humic substances is a very important issue, especially concerning improving soil management and developing sustainable agricultural practices. They are key in improving soil structure and increasing its capacity to retain water and essential nutrients such as N, P, K, S, Ca, and Mg. In addition, humic substances are an important store of carbon in soils, which is important in the context of climate change.

E3S Web of Conferences, open access proceedings in environment, energy and earth sciences

As is well known without organic matter, there would be no life. Organic compounds perform very important functions in the whole ecosystem as: structural, storage, transport, catalyse reactions, immune and regulatory functions. One of the most important for both living and non-living organic matter is their role in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen and others elements. The major form of organic matter are humic substances (HS) which are a mixture of high molecular weight organic compounds with variable composition. Humic substances can be divided into: humic acids (HA), fulvic acids (FA) and humins (Hu). In the presented research FA were studied. They were extracted from the effluent in the process of ion exchange in a hydrophobic ion exchanger and then they were examined by qualitative analysis to determine the elemental composition of acids and the degree of contamination with heavy metals and other substances. The main aim was to balance and assess the amount of FA in the primary and secondary effluent. The studies have shown that concentration of FA in raw wastewater (primary effluent) was bigger than in the treated wastewater (secondary effluent). Based on the research, it can be stated that selected WWTP discharges less FA compared to the input pollution load.