Suitability of Scirpus maritimus for petroleum hydrocarbons remediation in a refinery environment

Current and emerging trends in bioaugmentation of organic contaminated soils: A review

Organic contaminated soils constitute an important environmental problem, whereas field applicability of existing physical-chemical methods has encountered numerous obstacles, such as high chemical cost, large energy consumption, secondary pollution, and soil degradation. Bioaugmentation is an environmentally friendly and potentially economic technology that efficiently removes toxic pollutants from organic contaminated soils by microorganisms or their enzymes and bioremediation additives. This review attempted to explore the recent advances in bioaugmentation of organic contaminated soils and provided a comprehensive summary of various bioaugmentation methods, including bacterial, fungus, enzymes and bioremediation additives. The practical application of bioaugmentation is frequently limited by soil environmental conditions, microbial relationships, enzyme durability and remediation cycles. To tackle these problems, the future of bioaugmentation can be processed from sustainability of broad-spectrum bioremediation carriers, microbial/enzyme agents targeting combined contaminants, desorption of environmentally friendly additives and small molecular biological stimulants. Findings of this research are expected to provide new references for bioaugmentation methods that are practically feasible and economically potential.

Remediation potential of caffeine, oxybenzone, and triclosan by the salt marsh plants Spartina maritima and Halimione portulacoides

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have attracted increasing concern during the last decade because of their widespread uses and continuous release to the aquatic environment. This work aimed to study the distribution of caffeine (CAF), oxybenzone (MBPh), and triclosan (TCS) when they arrive in salt marsh areas and to assess their remediation potential by two different species of salt marsh plants: Spartina maritima and Halimione portulacoides. Experiments were carried out in the laboratory either in hydroponics (sediment elutriate) or in sediment soaked in elutriate, for 10 days. Controls without plants were also carried out. CAF, MBPh, and TCS were added to the media. In unvegetated sediment soaked in elutriate, CAF was mainly in the liquid phase (83%), whereas MBPh and TCS were in the solid phase (90% and 56%, respectively); the highest remediation was achieved for TCS (40%) and mainly attributed to bioremediation. The presence of plants in sediment soaked in elutriate-enhanced PPCPs remediation, decreasing CAF and TCS levels between approximately 20-30% and MBPh by 40%.. Plant uptake, adsorption to plant roots/sediments, and bio/rhizoremediation are strong hypothesis to explain the decrease of contaminants either in water or sediment fractions, according to PPCPs characteristics.

Use of surfactants for the remediation of contaminated soils: a review

Due to the great harm caused by soil contamination, there is an increasing interest to apply surfactants to the remediation of a variety of contaminated soils worldwide. This review article summarizes the findings of recent literatures regarding remediation of contaminated soils/sites using surfactants as an enhancing agent. For the surfactant-based remedial technologies, the adsorption behaviors of surfactants onto soil, the solubilizing capability of surfactants, and the toxicity and biocompatibility of surfactants are important considerations. Surfactants can enhance desorption of pollutants from soil, and promote bioremediation of organics by increasing bioavailability of pollutants. The removal of heavy metals and radionuclides from soils involves the mechanisms of dissolution, surfactant-associated complexation, and ionic exchange. In addition to the conventional ionic and nonionic surfactants, gemini surfactants and biosurfactants are also applied to soil remediation due to their benign features like lower critical micelle concentration (CMC) values and better biocompatibility. Mixed surfactant systems and combined use of surfactants with other additives are often adopted to improve the overall performance of soil washing solution for decontamination. Worldwide the field studies and full-scale remediation using surfactant-based technologies are yet limited, however, the already known cases reveal the good prospect of applying surfactant-based technologies to soil remediation.

Role of natural attenuation, phytoremediation and hybrid technologies in the remediation of a refinery soil with old/recent petroleum hydrocarbons contamination

Within a search for a biological remediation technology to remove petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) from a contaminated soil from a refinery, the potential of monitored natural attenuation (MNA) was compared with the use of transplants of Cortaderia selloana both in the absence and in the presence of soil amendments. After 31 months of experiments, MNA was effective in removing most of the recent PHC contamination (50% of the initial total contamination) at 5-20 cm depth. The presence of weathered contamination explains the existence of an established community of PHC degraders, as can be inferred by the most probable number technique. C. selloana, in its turn, showed capacity to mobilize the most recalcitrant fraction of PHC to its roots, nevertheless masking its remediation capacity. The use of a hybrid technology (C. selloana together with treatments with a surfactant and a bioaugmentation product) improved the removal of PHC at 15-20 cm depth, the presence of C. selloana facilitating the migration of additives into the deeper layers of soil, which can be considered a secondary but positive role of the plant. In the surface soil layer, which was exposed to both microorganisms and the atmosphere, a further 20% of weathered PHC contamination disappeared (70% total removal) as a result of photo- and chemical degradation. Periodic revolving of the soil, like tillage, to expose all the contaminated soil to the atmosphere will therefore be a reliable option for reducing the contamination of the refinery soil if conditions (space and equipment) permit this operation.