Biodegradation Assessment of Petroleum-Contaminated Soils by Natural Attenuation, Biostimulation and Bioaugmentation Methods on an Industrial Scale

Abstract

This research study compares the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons by natural attenuation, biostimulation and bioaugmentation methods by applying the Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus cereus bacteria in hydrocarbon-polluted land area of 1000 square meters consists of three distinct parts to compare the methods discussed above for 100 days. The petroleum-contaminated percentage of this area (w / w) is 0.5%. The extraction and determination of petroleum hydrocarbons percentage in contaminated soil was done by gravimetric method by liquid-liquid extraction method by hexane, dichloromethane and chloroform solvents. The results showed that the bioaugmentation technique has a higher ability to analyze the petroleum hydrocarbons contaminant that reduced about 82.33% of this pollution in the period of 100 days and biostimulation and natural attenuation methods decreased the hydrocarbon materials percentage to the rate of 40.32 and 12.11% respectively.