Carbon content reduction in a model reluctant clayey soil: Slurry phase n-hexadecane bioremediation

Clayey soils contaminated with organic pollutants are nowadays one of the important environmental issues as they are highly reluctant to conventional bioremediation techniques. In this study, biodegradability of n-hexadecane as a model contaminant in oil polluted clayey soil by an indigenous bacterium was investigated. Maximal bacterial growth was achieved at 8% (v/v) n-hexadecane as sole carbon and energy sources in aqueous phase. The predominant n-hexadecane uptake mechanism was identified to be biosurfactant-mediated using bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon (BATH) test and surface tension measurements. The effect of n-hexadecane concentration, soil to water ratio, inoculum concentration and pH on total organic carbon (TOC) reduction from kaolin soil in slurry phase was investigated at two levels in shake flasks using full factorial experimental design method where 10,000 (mg n-hexadecane)(kg soil)−1, soil-water ratio of 1:3, 10% (v/w) inoculum and pH of 7 resulted in the highest TOC reduction of 70% within 20 days. Additionally, slurry bioreactor experiments were performed to study the effect of various aeration rates on n-hexadecane biodegradation during 9 days where 2.5 vvm was found as an appropriate aeration rate leading to 54% TOC reduction. Slurry phase bioremediation is shown to be a successful method for remediation of clayey reluctant soils.