Effects of Substrate Mineralogy on the Biodegradability of Fuel Components

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to determine the effects of mineralogy on the biodegradability of components of a whole fuel by a soil microbial consortium. Samples of quartz sand (Fischer Sea Sand) and illite clay (API 35) were spiked with marine diesel fuel, aged, slurried, and inoculated, and concentrations of fuel components were monitored over time. To help distinguish biotic from abiotic processes, identical samples were poisoned with mercuric chloride and were run in parallel. While there was chromatographic and biomarker evidence of n-alkane biodegradation in the sand samples, illite samples showed no evidence of biogenic loss of aliphatic components. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, on the other hand, were lost equivalently on both minerals and in both cases were lost to a much greater extent than were total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). These results suggest that under our experimental conditions, illite inhibited the bioavailability of some TPH components to the soil microbial consortium.

Coal tar in Hamilton Harbour?Attempts at biological restoration guidelines

“…Parts of the harbor are anoxic and improved treatment of the sewage could expedite PAH biodegradation in sediments. The natural attenuation of PAHs is partly mediated via biodegradation and partly by physical adsorp-Ž tion Knaebel et al, 1996, Apitz andMeyers-Schulte, . 1996;White and Alexander, 1996 .…”

Bonding Mechanisms of Salicylic Acid Adsorbed onto Illite Clay: An ATR−FTIR and Molecular Orbital Study

“…However, NOMmineral binding mechanisms are poorly understood (5), and NOM adsorption onto minerals can affect bonding between NOM and organic contaminants (6). For example, the rates of weathering (7) and biodegradation (8) of diesel fuels aged on sands and clays have been found to be different due to mineralogical effects. Understanding these differences should help guide research into possible techniques for removing recalcitrant organic contaminants or explain why these sequestered contaminants have reduced bioavailability and lower associated environmental risk (ref 2 and references cited therein).…”

Dissipation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Freshly Contaminated Soils – The Effect of Soil Physicochemical Properties and Aging

“…While the properties of PAHs enable to predict their behaviour in some processes (Northcott and Jones, 2001) there is rather a limited amount of information on the relationship between the persistence of PAHs and soil properties. The soil descriptors previously reported to be related to PAHs dissipation in unvegetated soils are: cation-exchange capacity (Chung and Alexander, 2002), surface area, clay content and mineralogy (Tucker et al, 1995;Apitz and Meyers-Schulte, 1996;White et al, 1997;Chung and Alexander, 2002), pore structure Nam and Alexander, 1998;Chung and Alexander, 2002), aggregation (Nam et al, 2003) temperature (Coover and Sims, 1987;Maliszewska-Kordybach, 1993b), water content (Maliszewska-Kordybach, 1993a;Cousin et al, 1999), nutrients content and organic fertilisation (Erickson et al, 1993;Maliszewska-Kordybach, 1993a;Smreczak, 1999). The ability to predict the rate of PAHs degradation in soils of different properties is one of the most important challenges for soil remediation technologies (Harmsen, 2004).…”