Türkiye Jeoloji Bülteni

Cenozoic Humic Acid Properties of Bituminous Shales in the Region of Düzağaç (Kozan-Adana)

Abstract: Bituminous shale in our country takes second place in terms of reserve, when compared the fossil energyresources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas and for this reason, it appears that they have an important  value for the country economy. One of the biggest problems in our country, like in all over the world, isto meet the energy demand. Although lignite and coal from the most important fossil fuels having energypotential in our country have been considered important until today, it is not possible to say this for thebituminous shale. According to many scientific studies carried out in recent years, bituminous shale canbe used both energy resource and different areas. One of these areas is the efforts to increase agriculturalproductivity. In the vast majority in our country’s agricultural lands, due to below 1 % of organic matteramount, there is a need for organic matter additives such as fertilizers to obtain efficient and high qualityproducts. In this study, it has been tried to assess the potential of shale to increase the efficiency of soils,rather than as an energy source. In this context, possibility of use of Düzağaç (Kozan-Adana) bituminousshale as a soil conditioner (compost-humic acid) has been investigated. pH of Düzağaç bitumen wasdefined as 7.79 and this value will help our acidic soils to be balanced in terms of pH. In this study, itwas concluded that the use of bituminous shale, which has not economic value as an energy source in ourcountry, as compost (humic acid) is crucial to economical ways and our soil’s reclamation and future.