Abstract
Purpose
The objectives of this study were to explore the effects of bulking agent and nutrients on the pore characteristics, remediation efficiency, and biotoxicity of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil. Furthermore, the correlation among the three characteristic indices was studied.
Methods
Three pilot-scale biopiles were constructed to treat aged petroleum-contaminated soil. Micro-CT was applied to obtain the pore characteristics of piles.
Results
The results showed that the addition of bulking agent had a positive effect on the pore development of the biopile. The porosity of the pile was increased from 0.33 to 3.32% of the control pile to 4.41 to 26.93%, and the addition of bulking agent showed a significant positive effect on the Feret diameter. However, the addition of nutrients had no significant effect on the porosity and Feret diameter. Besides, the total petroleum hydrocarbon removal rate of bulking agent pile (36.82–49.18%) was significantly higher than that of nutrient piles (20.07–23.43%) and control piles (17.57–27.08%). The bulking agent pile had the lowest toxicity. The porosity of the pile, total petroleum hydrocarbons removal rate, and the characteristic values of biotoxicity (EC50) showed a positive correlation.
Conclusion
Bulking agents might promote gas circulation by improving the pore structure of the biopile. And the metabolic activity of microorganisms increased as a result of the promotion of the microbial habitat. The higher biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons was achieved. However, the main finding of this research is that adding bulk agent to petroleum-contaminated soil significantly increases biodegradation of petroleum. This may be inapplicable to other soils with a different clay content or porosity.
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Funding
This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project No. 2019CDCGHJ325); Graduate Scientific Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing, China (Grant No. CYS20033); and Guangxi science and technology major project (No. AA17204076-4).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Xiang Wang conceived the study; Xiang Wang and Kejin Chen acquired the funding; Shijie Wang and Xiang Wang designed the study and collected field data; Jiaojiao Jiang carried out statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript; and Li'ao Wang, Yinghuan Yang, Quanwei Lv, and Lingyue Liu participated in concept development, supervised study design, facilitated field data collection, participated in data analysis, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Jiang, J., Wang, S., Wang, L. et al. The improvement of pore characteristics, remediation efficiency, and biotoxicity of petroleum-contaminated soil with the addition of bulking agent on field-scale biopile treatment. J Soils Sediments 21, 2855–2864 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02992-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02992-1