Biodegradation of BTEX under varying soil moisture and temperature conditions

Contamination of soils due to the release of hydrocarbons, including petroleum products containing BTEX, is a major public health concern. Remediation of these polluted soils is needed to eliminate risk to human and to the environment. Biological treatment of these organic contaminated soils is receiving increasing interests and where applicable, can serve as a cost-effective soil remediation alternative. The effective implementation of this eco-friendly remediation technology requires a thorough insight of contaminants fate and transport processes under varying environmental conditions associated to a target site. Among several environmental factors, soil moisture content and soil temperature variation are important environmental factors for controlling the biodegradation of BTEX pollutants. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the complex soil-water-BTEX-atmospheric continuum processes during bioremediation under varying soil moisture and temperature conditions. To achieve this, a series of in-situ experiments under controlled conditions are planned for two sandy soils (with and without organic matter) containing dissolved toluene for different temperature and moisture content varying from residual to saturated condition. The results of these lab experiments can be used for predicting the process of BTEX degradation in variably saturated soils and will be relevant to fields such as bioremediation.