CORRELATION BETWEEN THE DYNAMICS OF PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS CONCENTRATION AND BIOREMEDIATION PROCESS EFFICIENCY IN SOIL POLLUTED WITH CRUDE OIL

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-05-8 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 32, 117-124 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/32/S13.016

ABSTRACT

Petroleum and its derivatives are the main source of energy for industry and domestic consumption. Petroleum hydrocarbons are based on multiple carbon bonds that develop intense and raised complex structures when they bound with other characteristic molecules, hence the latest hydrocarbons have variety of forms and consist of short, medium and long aliphatics, aromatics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of different proportions. The accidental release of these hydrocarbons into the environment represents a major source of water and soil pollution. Bioremediation of crude oil contaminated soil is an effective process to clean petroleum pollutants from the environment. Crude oil bioremediation of soils is limited by the bacteria activity in degrading the spills hydrocarbons. In this paper are presented the correlation between the dynamics of petroleum hydrocarbons concentration and bioremediation process efficiency in soil polluted with crude oil. A natural biodegradable product and bacterial inoculum was used for total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal from an artificial polluted soil. Soil polluted with 50000 mg/kg of TPH was treated with 0.25%, respective 0.5% natural biodegradable product and/or bacterial inoculum to increase the biodegradability rate. Also, the soil polluted with 100000 mg/kg of TPH was treated by 0.5%, respective 1% natural biodegradable product and/or bacterial inoculum. Regression curves of petroleum hydrocarbons concentrations determined in experimental variants polluted with 5% crude oil throughout the experiment, showed clearly the decreasing of TPH in all treated variants compared with polluted control variant which was not treated, and the values of correlation coefficients showed a high degree of statistical assurance of results. In case of excessive polluted soil with 10% crude oil, dynamics and pattern of regression curves corresponding to the control and four treated variants are very similar to those registered in experimental variants polluted with 5% crude oil.

Keywords: correlation, petroleum hydrocarbon, bioremediation process efficiency, soil polluted, crude oil