Electrokinetics-enhanced biodegradation of heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil around iron and steel industries

Bioremediation is a safe and cost-effective technology for the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminated soils, but its remediation rate is usually very slow at soils contaminated with heavy PAHs in high concentrations. This paper describes the feasibility of using electrokinetics to enhance the degradation of heavy PAHs in soil around iron and steel industries. Three bench-scale experiments were conducted for 90 days using historically polluted soil with a total PAHs content of 220.01 mg/kg dry soil. All of the experiments were inoculated with PAHs degrading bacteria, but experiments II and III were performed using constant polarity and alternating polarity electrokinetic conditions, respectively. Results were compared with those from the control experiment (experiment I), which did not receive any electrokinetic treatment. The results demonstrated that the electrokinetic process could enhance the biodegradation extent of total PAHs and heavy PAHs in the soil. The final degradation extents of total PAHs were 9.5% and 13.5% higher in experiments II and III, respectively, as compared to experiment I. Under the electrokinetic and bacteria conditions, the relative enhancement in the degradation of four- to six-ring PAHs compared to the control experiment was much stronger and increased with increasing ring number. The final degradation extents of four- to six-ring PAHs increased by 7.9-8.6%, 11.0-18.4% and 17.2-25.6% in experiments II and III compared to experiment I, respectively. The results also showed that the electrokinetic operation mode could affect not only the degradation extent of total PAHs but also bacterial counts and soil moisture of different regions in soils. The use of alternating polarity electrokinetics was favorable to the bacterial growth and kept the soil properties uniform. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the degradation extent of PAHs, bacterial counts and moisture content by Pearson correlation analysis under electrokinetics. The results of this work demonstrate that the use of electrokinetics can significantly enhance the degradation of PAHs by influencing soil conditions. Therefore, the use of electrokinetic technology may provide a useful tool for enhancing the bioremediation of heavy PAHs in soil. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.