In subsurface environment, small-scale heterogeneities usually cause the reduction of the applicability of in situ remedial techniques. Biogeochemical heterogeneities and preferential groundwater flow paths create complex hydrogeologic conditions at most contaminated sites. A thorough understanding of the resulting three-dimensional distribution of contaminants is a necessity prior to determining a need for remediation. In this study, a gasoline spill site was selected to examine the effects of aquifer heterogeneities and geochemical variations on petroleum hydrocarbon biodegradation via different oxidation-reduction process. At this site, two multilevel sampling wells were installed to delineate the lateral (5 m) and vertical (0.5 m) distribution of contaminant concentrations and different biogeochemical parameters. Two 5-cm (I.D.) continuous soil cores [from 4 to 8 m below land surface (bls)] were collected within the gasoline plume to evaluate the distribution of the microbial population in soils. Results show that high microbial activities were observed in soil samples based on the following evidences: (1) high petroleum hydrocarbon degradation rate, and (2) high microbial biomass. Each soil section was used for chemical extraction, microbial enumeration, and grain size distribution. Results show that the soil sections with more permeable sediment materials corresponded with higher biomass (total anaerobes > 2 x 106cells/g) and significant contaminant degradation. However, those sections with less permeable sediments contained lower microbial population. Results indicate that the subsurface microorganisms were distributed unevenly in the aquifer, and some regions were devoid of microorganisms and biodegradation activities. Spatial distribution of microorganisms, soil materials, and biogeochemical characteristics in the subsurface soils control the extent and kinetics of contaminant biodegradation. Thus, using blended aquifer materials for measurement of in situ biodegradation rates may not achieve representative results.

In this study, EEFM (Excitation emission fluorescent matrix) was used to evaluate the variation of organic characteristic of both source sewages into WuYiShan wastewater treatment. Similar organic property for both source sewages was identified, having four peaks, respectively belonging to fulvic acid, humic acid, aromatic protein and soluble microbial by-product. The fluorescent intensity (FI) of dominant humic acid fraction increased after biological treatment, and decreased in constructed wetland. UV process could result the increase of FI value of humic acid. However, the ratio of FI value of peak location in soluble microbial by-product to fulvic acid, called as Fs/Ff, continuously had an ascent after the biotreatment, constructed wetland and UV process. The organic property was apparently affected by the interior microorganism activity.

In this study, photo-bioreactor designed with 4 L of volume to cultivate Chlorella sp. was conducted for comparing the differences of biomass increase among three gas flow rates. All experiments were controlled at light reaction of 12 hrs. with 1,700 lux. The organic fluorescence of algae, expressed in excitation emission fluorescent matrix (EEFM), was obtained from algal solution deducted from EEFM of the filtrate obtained from the filtration of algal solution using 0.2 μm membrane filter. Also, the surface charge and functional group for Chlorella sp. were respectively measured by zeta meter and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Biomass was measured by absorbance wavelength of 683 nm or dried biomass. Current results reveal that high flow rate produced more biomass than low flow rate did. Regarding to the fluorescent characteristic derived from Chlorella sp., two peaks were appeared in both wavelengths of excitation and Emission (EX/EM) respectively located at 280/330 nm (protein-like) and 440-480/680 nm (pigment). For the variation of autofluorescent intensities during algal incubation, algal image captured by epofluorescent microscope equipped with CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) could be further dealt using image software, showing that there were divergences of fluorescent intensities derived from varied amount of protein-like substance or pigment. Functional group of Chlorella sp. analyzed by FTIR, hydroxyl, peptidic bond, carboxylic acids and polysaccharide were existed with variations of transmittance (%) while gas flow rate was changed.

In this work, the excitation-emission fluorescent matrix (EEFM) was used to compare the divergence of fluorescent organic properties of the effluents produced from the operation of the bio-stabilizing filter. Four bio-stabilizing filters were simultaneously operated in the combination of both filtered CCL and FS source waters with ozonation (O3/NPDOC=1) and two different indigenous bacteria taken from CCL and FS source water. It found that, two peak locations, 220-230/330nm, 320-330/410-420nm, existed in the effluent of the four bio-stabilizing filters, and one another peak of 280-290/340 nm was appeared in bio-stabilizing filter using FS source water as a substrate. The fluorescent organic matter, with an excitation wavelength of 220-230 nm and 280-290 nm may be attributed as protein-like, while that of 320-330/410-420nm had the possibility of humic-like. The humic-like matter was accumulated in the effluent from the bio-stabilizing filter during the operational process. Bio-stabilizing filter operated with consistent source water and indigenous bacteria could release higher humic-like fluorescent intensity than that with inconsistent source water and indigenous bacteria.