Composting of kerosene‐contaminated soil: Fate of kerosene

Abstract

The efficacy of composting to treat soils contaminated with kerosene was studied with bench‐scale compost reactor systems. The fate of kerosene during composting was also studied using radio‐labeled ¹⁴C‐ hexadecane. The temperature profiles of the compost reactors containing 1 % and 5 % kerosene contaminated soils did not differ much from that of control reactors. However, the reactors with 20 % kerosene contaminated soil showed much lower thermophilic temperatures. The GC spectra of compost samples taken in the course of composting showed rather uniform removal of kerosene homologues. The most of ¹⁴C‐ hexadecane was volatilized, and relatively smaller percentage was mineralized to CO₂ after 64 days of composting. Decreasing aeration rate from 1 to 0.5 m³/kg‐VS‐d significantly reduced volatilization and improved biodegradation of hexadecane.

Key words:

• Composting
• kerosene‐contaminated soil
• fate

Notes

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