Bioremediation of oil contaminated land

Abstract

An intensive laboratory investigation was undertaken in order to establish the feasibility and strategy for treating soil contaminated with oil at a refinery site. The bioremediation strategy was optimized by incorporating microorganisms, nutrients, oxygen and surfactant into various treatment systems depending on the nature of the soil. The paper describes two field trial programmes, involving the successful treatment of approximately 2000m of soil whereby, oil contamination was reduced from 12980 mgkg⁻¹ to 1273 mgkg⁻¹ within 34 weeks in excavated soil and from 185 mgkg⁻¹ to 26 mgkg⁻¹ in 15 weeks by in situ treatment.