Kinetics of bioremediation of crude oil contaminated soil using organic and inorganic particulates

ABSTRACT

The potential of organic and inorganic agents for remediating crude oil contaminated soils was investigated in this study. Kinetic models were also developed to predict the bioremediation rates for these agents. The bioremediating agents (organic and inorganic particulates) used in this study were CB-1, PS-1, AL-1, CA-1, SD-1 and OC-1. The percentage (%) degradation of the bioremediating agents calculated from the total hydrocarbon content (THC) obtained over eight weeks were 78.17%, 80.97%, 95.98%, 96.58%, 97.19% and 95.51% for CB-1, PS-1, AL-1, CA-1, SD-1 and OC-1 respectively. The presence of crude oil degrading micro-organisms in these bioremediating agents (particulates) were found to have contributed to the degradation rates obtained. The particulates which are good bulking agents also served as conducive hosts for these micro-organisms. The bioremediation reactions were mostly of the first order and the rate constants (k) obtained were 0.029 day⁻¹, 0.031 day⁻¹, 0.059 day⁻¹, 0.063 day⁻¹, 0.067 day⁻¹ and 0.057 day⁻¹ for CB-1, PS-1, AL-1, CA-1, SD-1 and OC-1 respectively. It was however deduced that plant organics (AL-1, CA-1 and SD-1) were better bioremediating agents compared to animal organics (CB-1 and PS-1) and competed favorably with the synthetic bioremediating agent. (OC-1).

KEYWORDS:

• bioremediating agents
• bioremediation
• kinetic model
• kinetics
• particulates

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and contributions of the laboratory staff of Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin-city. They also wish to specially acknowledge Dr Andrew Amenaghawon and Dr Chris Akhabue of the Chemical engineering Department, University of Benin for their advice and support.

Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest associated with this work.