Remediation of resins-contaminated soil by the combination of electrokinetic and bioremediation processes.

In this work, soil contaminated by petroleum resins was remediated by electrokinetic-bioremediation (EK-BIO) technology for 60 days. A microbial consortium, comprising Rhizobium sp., Arthrobacter globiformis, Clavibacter xyli, Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus sp., was used to enhance the treatment performance. The results indicate that resin removal and phytotoxicity reduction were highest in the inoculated EK process, wherein 23.6% resins was removed from the soil and wheat seed germination ratio was increased from 47% to around 90% after treatment. The microbial counts, soil basal respiration and dehydrogenase activity were positively related to resins degradation, and they could be enhanced by direct current electric field. After remediation, the C/H ratio of resins decreased from 8.03 to 6.47. Furthermore, the structure of resins was analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) before and after treatment. It was found that the changes of the structure of resins took place during EK-BIO treatment and finally led to the reduction of aromaticity, aromaticity condensation and phytotoxicity.