Degradation Kinetics of Petroleum Contaminants in Soil-Water Systems

On the basis of site investigation and sample collection of petroleum contaminants in the soil-water-crop system in the Shenyang-Fushun sewage irrigation area, the physical-chemical-biological compositions of the unsaturated zone is analyzed systematically in this paper. At the same time, the degradation kinetics of residual and aqueous oils is determined through biodegradation tests. The studies show that dominant microorganisms have been formed in the soils after long-term sewage irrigation. The microorganisms mainly include bacteria, and a few of fungus and actinomycetes. After a 110-days' biodegradation test, the degradation rate of residual oil is 9.74%-10.63%, while the degradation rate of aqueous oil reaches 62.43%. This indicates that the degradation rate of low-carbon aqueous oil is higher than that of high-carbon residual oil. In addition, although microbial degradation of petroleum contaminants in soils is suitable to the first-order kinetics equation, the half-lives of aqueous oil, No. 20 heavy diesel and residual oil in the surface soils (L2-1, S1-1 and X1-1) are 1732 h, 3465 h and 17325 h, respectively.

Adaptability of microbial inoculators and their contribution to degradation of mineral oil and PAHs

Five dominant bacteria strains（A cetobacter sp., Alcdigenes sp., Micrococcus sp., Arthrobacter sp. and Bacillus sp.） and five fungi strains （Cephalosporium sp. Ⅰ, Cephalosporlum sp. Ⅱ, Aspergillus sp. Ⅰ, Aspergillus sp. Ⅱ and Fusarium sp.） isolated from petroleum-contaminated soil were used to assess the potential capability of mineral oil and PAH enhanced degradation separately and jointly using the batch liquid medium cultivation with diesel oil spiked at 1000 mg/L. The experiment was performed on a reciprocal shaker in the darkness at 25℃ to 30℃ for 100 d. The dynamic variation in the activity of microbial inoculators in each treatment and the degradation of the target pollutants during the period of experiment were monitored. Results showed a more rapid biodegradation of mineral oil and PAHs at the beginning of the experiment （about 20 d） by dominant bacteria, fungi and their mixture than that of the indigenous microorganisms, however, thereafter an opposite trcnd was exhibited that the removal ratio by indigenous microorganisms was superior to any other dominant treatments and the tendency lasted till the end of the experiment, indicating the limited competitive capability of dominant microorganisms to degrade the contaminants, and the natural selection of indigenous microorganisms for use in the removal of the contaminants. At the end of the experiment, the removal ratio of mineral oil ranged from 56.8 % to 79.2 % and PAHs ranged from 96.8 % to 99.1% in each treatment by microbial inoculators,