Bioremediation

of contaminated soil
Outline

Process description
In situ vs ex situ bioremediation
Intrinsic biodegradation
Engineered (enhanced) bioremediation
slurry-phase, solid-phase
Integration of bioremediation with other technologies
Bioremediation : Definition

■ The use of living microbes to transform undesirable

or harmful substances into non-toxic compounds

■ The husbandry and management of naturally

occurring microbes to degrade target pollutants for
the purpose of restoring contaminatedenvironment

www.integraenvironmental.com/ bioreovernew.htm
 Bioremediation
1. Enzyme released by microbe break the contaminant
down into digestible pieces.
2. The contaminant is metabolized by the cell for
carbon and/ or energy.
3. Harmless biological wastes are all that remain of the
contaminant
New cell
b o n
car
organic energy
contaminant elec
tron electron
s acceptor
www.integraenvironmental.com/ bioreovernew.htm e.g. O2
US EPA pollutant categories
for bioremediation
▪ Organic solvents
▪ Halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons
▪ PAH wastes (coal tars, creosotes)
▪ Pesticides
▪ Munitions
▪ Metals (special case)
 Basic information of bioremediation
Bioremediation is viewed as a green technology

Whether microorganisms will be successful in destroying

contaminants in the subsurface depends on three
factors:

■ the type of organisms,

■ the type of contaminant,
■ the geological and chemical conditions at the
contaminated site.
Basic information of bioremediation
Microbial activities differ according to whether they are
aerobic or anaerobic

Aerobic
❑ Oxygen serves as a terminal electron acceptor
❑ Degradation of most organic compounds is aerobic
■ Petroleum hydrocarbons
■ Most chlorinated pesticides
■ Some chlorinated solvents
❑ Faster degradation than under anaerobic conditions
 Basic information of bioremediation

Anaerobic
Complicating factors

▪ Unavailability of contaminants to the organisms

▪ Toxicity of contaminant to the organisms
▪ Presence of multiple contaminants and natural
organic chemicals

▪ Incomplete degradation
▪ Inability to remove contaminant to low concentrations
▪ Aquifer clogging
Goals

1. Ultimate goal - Mineralization* of contaminants

❑ Biochemical transformation of hazardous organic

chemical to harmless in-organic
❑ constituents

■ CO2 (or other gas), water, cell materials

2. Secondary goal - economics

Criteria for selecting bioremediation

Is the chemical biodegradable?

what function do they serve
Primary substrate – carbon and/or energy
source or electron donor
Electron acceptor –chlorinated benzoates,
PCBs
Cometabolized substrate – compound is not
utilized for growth
Inhibitors or poisons
Criteria for selecting bioremediation

Is there any an indigenous population of

degraders at the site?
Is it too toxic for microorganisms
Are there sufficient nutrients for microbial
activity

What is the rate limiting factor and can it

be modified?
in situ vs ex situ
in situ
in place
site specific

ex situ
excavation of contaminated soil
controlled and optimized
Treatability Test

■ Microbiological techniques
■ Biochemical techniques
■ Molecular techniques
■ Microcosm studies

■ Lab scale
■ Pilot scale
Natural Attenuation vs Intrinsic
Biodegradation
Intrinsic Biodegradation
An option when the naturally occurring rate of
contaminant biodegradation is faster than the rate of
contaminant migration.

These relative rates depend on

the type and concentration of contaminant,
the microbial community,
the subsurface hydrogeochemical conditions.
Intrinsic Biodegradation
The ability of native microbes to metabolize the
contaminant must be demonstrated either in field tests
or in laboratory tests performed on site-specific
samples.

The effectiveness of intrinsic bioremediation must be

continually monitored.

In intrinsic bioremediation the rate-controlling step is

frequently the influx of oxygen.
Intrinsic Biodegradation
Lack of a sufficiently large microbial population can
also limit the cleanup rate.

The microbial population may be small because of:

a lack of nutrients,
limited availability of contaminants resulting from
sorption to solid materials
other physical phenomena, or an inhibitory
condition such as low pH or the presence of a toxic
material
Engineered bioremediation
■ Engineered bioremediation may be chosen over
intrinsic bioremediation because of time and
liability.

■ biostimulation involves the addition electron donors,

electron acceptors and nutrients to stimulate naturally
occurring microbial population

■ bioaugmentation introduces specific microorganisms

aimed at enhancing the biodegradation of target
compounds
Engineered bioremediation
 Engineered bioremediation
■ Engineered bioremediation requires installing wells and other
engineering systems to circulate electron acceptors and
nutrients that stimulate microbial growth.

■ Key site characteristics for engineered bioremediation are:

• hydraulic conductivity greater than 10-4 cm/s
(if the system circulates water)
• intrinsic permeability greater than 10-9 cm2
(if the system circulates air)
• Relatively uniform subsurface medium
• Residual concentration of nonaqueous-phase
contaminants of less than 10,000 mg/kg of subsurface solids.
Bioventing technology that stimulates the natural in
situ biodegradation of any aerobically
degradable compounds in soil by providing
oxygen to existing soil microorganisms.
Bioventing
■ Bioventing is an in-situ remediation technology that uses
indigenous microorganisms to biodegrade organic
constituents adsorbed to soils in the unsaturated zone.

■ The activity of the indigenous bacteria is enhanced by

inducing air (or oxygen) flow into the unsaturated zone
(using extraction or injection wells) to promote
biodegradation of constituents and minimize volatilization

■ nutrients may be added, if necessary

 Bioventing
■ Bioventing has proven to be very effective in remediating
releases of petroleum products including gasoline, jet
fuels, kerosene, and diesel fuel.

■ Bioventing is most often used at sites with mid-weight

petroleum products (i.e., diesel fuel and jet fuel),

- lighter products (i.e., gasoline) tend to volatilize

readily and can be removed more rapidly using
SVE.
- heavier products (e.g., lubricating oils) generally
take longer to biodegrade than the lighter
products.
Bioventing :
Disadvantages
■ Not applicable for certain site conditions (e.g., low
soil permeabilities, high clay content)

■ High constituent concentrations may initially be

toxic to microorganisms.

■ Cannot always achieve very low cleanup

conditions.
"What proves in situ bioremediation?"

A THREE-PART STRATEGY FOR

''PROVING" IN SITU BIOREMEDIATION

Build a consistent, logical case the relies on convergent

lines of independent evidence taken from the field site itself
 A challenge to identify in situ
biodegradation processes
The general strategy for demonstrating that in situ
bioremediation is working :

1. documented loss of contaminants from the site,

2. laboratory assays showing that microorganisms in site
samples have the potential to transform the
contaminants under the expected site conditions, and
3. one or more pieces of evidence showing that the
biodegradation potential is actually realized in the field.
Ex situ Bioremediation Technology

■ Solid phase
❑ Biopile
❑ Land farming

■ Slurry phase- biological reactor

 Typical landfarming operation

(www.epa.gov)
Landfarming
■ Landfarming has been proven effective in reducing
concentrations of nearly all the constituents of petroleum
products
■ Lighter (more volatile) petroleum products (e.g.,
gasoline)
evaporation > microbial respiration
■ The mid-range hydrocarbon products (e.g., diesel
fuel, kerosene)
biodegradation > evaporation
■ Heavier (non-volatile) petroleum products (e.g., heating
oil, lubricating oils)
biodegradation ( minimal evaporation)
Typical biopile operation

(www.epa.gov)
Tanked base Bioslurry
Slurry phase biological treatment
A site can be especially amenable to remediation by slurry-
phase biotechnology if:
■ the amount of available land for other technologies
is limited,
■ the soil or sludge is only contaminated with
organic biodegradable compounds,
■ the soil or sludge is not sterile,
■ the contaminating materials are soluble,
Slurry phase biological treatment
■ the contaminating materials are soluble,
■ the remediation project is schedule-driven,
■ a slurry evaluation test shows that the soil or sludge can
produce a pumpable. suspendable slurry, and/or
■ the solid matrix is either of such a consistency that it can
produce a slurry without any treatment
 Integration of Bioremediation with
other technologies
■ frequently combined with nonbiological treatment
technologies, both sequentially and
simultaneously.

implemented after excavating soils near the

contaminant source.

combined with a vapor recovery system to extract

volatile contaminants from soils.

follows engineered bioremediation, which cleans up

most of the contamination, with intrinsic
Thank you