Studies on the Seed Germination Changes after Thermal Decontamination of Crude Oil Polluted Soils

Given that the world population will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, removing all the causes that result in reduced yields of cereals and technical plants is vital. It is known that soil affects plants through its physical (texture, structure, density), chemical (nutrients content, pH) and biological characteristics (microbiological activity, soil fertility).Soils are the key environmental tank to pollutants, storage and persistence of pollutants in soil being dependent on a number of factors: the exchange of air, the burying of pollutants and their biodegradability. This paper aims to emphasize the germination of plants after a polluted soil sample was decontaminated by a thermal method. The soil sample was polluted with 5% oil. The soil sample was characterized by capillarity, being established the maximum height of the moistened layer of 7.6 cm and 14.1 cm for oil, but also permeability of 218.5 cm3/h for water and 70.83 cm3/h for oil. Knowing the average permeability, it can be determined the corresponding retention capacity: 873.14 kg/m3 for water and 776 kg/m3 for oil. Restoration of the germination potential for the analyzed soil also determined the presence of nutrients required before and after remediation. The analyzed nutrients were nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The soil sample had no nitrogen, but phosphorus and potassium were in medium concentration. The soil sample that was polluted with oil and decontaminated by a thermal method, has nitrogen, the potassium content does not change, but the phosphorus content increases.