REMEDIATION OF SOIL CONTAMINATED WITH PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS

Abstract

Soil mineral oil contamination causes many problems for the surrounding environment. Many methods are carried out to treat oil contaminated soil however ex-situ or in-situ. Phytoremediation and bioremediation are in-situ remediation methods that are less expensive and less disruptive than ex-situ approaches. In this work, phytoremediation using alfalfa, bioremediation using Pseudomonase putida and a combination were investigated as in-situ remediation options for sandy soil contamination with petroleum hydrocarbons. Sandy soil samples and hydrocarbon contaminants were collected from a gas production plant located in Port-said city. The levels of hydrocarbon contamination in soil were 2.5%, 5% and 10%. All experiments were carried out in pots. The remediation efficiency was evaluated with time by the quantitative analysis of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) concentration in soil throughout the experiments after 15, 30, 60, and 90 days from the start of the experiments. Results showed that the ability of the used methods to reduce hydrocarbon concentrations from soil for all concentrations of contamination compared to control samples during 90 days or less of the remediation processes. The different treatments were able to reduce the level of contamination in the sandy soil with efficiencies up to a maximum of 99.9% for phytoremediation, 98.7% for bioremediation, and 99.0% of combination method, for TPH initial contamination of 5%, 10%, and 2.5% (w/w) respectively.