Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering (Jun 2024)
Enhancing field-scale bioremediation of weathered petroleum oil-contaminated soil with biocompost as a bulking agent
Abstract
The field-scale cleanup of weathered petroleum oil-contaminated soils from the Minas Oil Fields in Indonesia was investigated using landfarming bioremediation technology. Sawdust produced from palm fronds, trunks, and bushes was used as a bulking agent, fermented with manure from cow, goat, and chicken dung as amylolytic and cellulolytic source microflora. Petrophylic bacteria known for their capability to degrade PAH were used as augmented microflora along with stimulated local indigenous microflora overgrown onsite. The findings demonstrated that, albeit at varying rates, the inoculum of native and augmented microflora raised the total colony-forming units (CFU) and the rate at which total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were degraded in all contaminated soils treated in the soil bioremediation facilities (SBF). After 150 days of bioremediation operation, the bioremediation process for petroleum oil-contaminated soil effectively eliminated 165.79 kg of TPH from 2565 cubic meters of contaminated soil, with a recovery cost of 161 USD per cubic of treated soil. The initial average TPH concentration in the soil was 64,799 ± 9373 mg/kg and decreased to a lower concentration of 163 ± 74 mg/kg after bioremediation was completed. Both native and augmented petrophilic microflora showed significant growth over tenfold, with an average number of colonies at the initial stage of the bioremediation process ranging from 5.9 × 105 to 6.6 × 106 CFU per gram of soil. We show that a practical and affordable bioremediation technique is the onsite production of petrophylic microflora (both native and augmented) and compost from locally available biomass waste.
