Heinz Seidel

Bioavailability of hydrocarbons during microbial remediation of a sandy soil

Abstract The microbial degradation of hydrocarbons was studied in an artificially contaminated sandy soil, using a pilot-scale percolator system. After a short lag period, an intensive degradation occurred, which diminished in time and completely stopped in the end, despite large residual contaminations (residues of 56% diesel fuel, 20% n-hexadecane and 3.5% phenanthrene at the initial loadings of each 3000 mg/kg). The remaining pollutant content was influenced by the kind of hydrocarbon but was nearly independent of its initial loading. According to a model-aided analysis of the carbon dioxide production during remediation, the observed stagnation of degradation was caused by a limited bioavailability of the pollutants. The degradation in the soil-free aqueous phase was more extensive than in the soil, which suggests that the limited bioavailability in the soil can be attributed mainly to matrix-dependent rather than substrate-dependent influences. Generally, fine particles and organic matter are mainly responsible for the adsorption of pollutants to the soil matrix. Our sandy soil also bound hydrocarbons adsorptively although it contained neither silty material nor significant amounts of organic matter. As shown by Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) analysis, the soil particles were covered by micropores, which enlarged the soil surface by a factor of 120 in comparison with the macroscopic surface area. The microporosity is the reason for the hydrocarbons being more strongly adsorbed to the sandy soil than expected.

Microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in soil during aerobic/anaerobic changes and under purely aerobic conditions

Abstract Microbial hydrocarbon degradation in soil was studied during periodical aerobic/anaerobic switching and under purely aerobic conditions by using a pilot-scale plant with diesel-fuel-contaminated sand. The system worked according to the percolation principle with controlled circulation of process water and aeration. Periodical switching between 4 h of aerobic and 2 h of anaerobic conditions was achieved by repeated saturation of the soil with water. Whatever the cultivation mode, less than 50% of the diesel was degraded after 650 h because the hydrocarbons were adsorbed. Contrary to expectations, aerobic/anaerobic changes neither accelerated the rate of degradation nor reduced the residual hydrocarbon content of the soil. Obviously the pollutant degradation rate was determined mainly by transport phenomena and less by the efficiency of microbial metabolism. The total mass of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced was greater under aerobic/anaerobic changing than under aerobic conditions, although the mass of hydrocarbons degraded was nearly the same. As shown by an overall balance of microbial growth and by a carbon balance, the growth yield coefficient was smaller during aerobic/anaerobic changes than under aerobic conditions.

Composting of Wood Containing Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

The addition of various nitrogen sources, such as liquid hog manure and mineral medium, to pine wood accelerated the composting process in Dewar vessels, which was obvious from the increased decomposition temperature and the more intensive oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. During composting in Dewar vessels of artificially PAH-contaminated pine wood soaked with liquid manure, the PAH degradation was influenced by the inoculum used. The fastest PAH degradation was achieved by compost addition, but the most intensive carbon dioxide evolution was measured with hydrocarbon-polluted soil as an additive. After 61 days, the PAH content of the wood was reduced from each 1000 mg/kg to 26 mg/kg of phenanthrene and 83 mg/kg of pyrene. The relation between the microbial wood decay and PAH degradation shows that the detoxification at least of artificially PAH-polluted wood demands only a partial wood decay.A pilot scale percolator was applied to composting of artificially contaminated pine wood and rea...

Conditioning of Heavy Metal-Polluted River Sediments by Helophytes

ABSTRACT Aquatic sediments in industrial regions are often polluted by heavy metals. When removed by dredging, the sediments become an environmental risk. Because of the high costs and the deficient sustainability of landfill disposal, we intend to develop a remediation process for cleaning heavy metal-contaminated sediments by solid-bed bioleaching. Unfortunately, freshly dredged sediments are often impermeable to water. Therefore, they have to be conditioned to improve their hydrodynamic properties and make them suitable for solid-bed leaching. The treatment basin of 5.9 m × 7.5 m of a pilot-scale plant for sediment conditioning was filled with 0.5 m freshly dredged sediment, which originated from a trap in the Weisse Elster River near Leipzig, Germany, and was contaminated with Zn, Cr, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Cd. The sediment was planted with the helophytes Phragmites australis, Phalaris arundinacea, and Agrostis stolonifera. The vegetation evaporated large amounts of water and transported oxygen into the sedi...

Bioleaching of heavy metal-contaminated sediments by indigenous Thiobacillus spp : metal solubilization and sulfur oxidation in the presence of surfactants

Abstract The efficiency of surfactant application to improve or inhibit metal solubilization and sulfur oxidation kinetics during the bioleaching of heavy metal-contaminated sediments was studied in suspension-leaching experiments. The river sediment used contained large amounts of fine particles and organic matter. Three types of surfactants were tested: sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), a C12/14-alkanolethoxylate (Präwozell F1214/5N), and a wettable sulfur (Netz- schwefel 80 WP). Adding 10 mmol SDS/l led to transient inhibition of acidification, metal solubilization and sulfur oxidation. Inhibiting bioleaching for just 14 days required about ten times more SDS than the amount used for mine waste mitigation. The use of Präwozell resulted in poor inhibition; and using of wettable sulfur did not improve leaching efficiency. The bulk of these surfactants was sorbed onto the solid particles immediately on application, while the remainder in the aqueous phase disappeared within a few days.

Mobilization of Arsenic and Heavy Metals from Contaminated Sediments by Changing the Environmental Conditions

The solubility of arsenic (As) and heavy metals (Me) from two sediments with differing chemical characteristics and degrees of contamination was quantified by suspension leaching under both aerobic and anoxic conditions. Elemental sulphur (S°) was added as a substrate for the indigenous Thiobacillus spp. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of measures, which attempted to stimulate or to prevent the mobilization of the pollutants in the source material. By stimulating aerobic bioleaching with S°, up to 80% (660 mg/kg) of the As became soluble in a highly polluted lake sediment (Suesser See) in the form of arsenite and arsenate. Without the addition of S°, the As solubility ranged between 0.6 and 3.5 mg/kg. No toxic effects of As (III) on bacterial growth and microbial activity of the indigenous Thiobacillus spp. were observed. By comparison, the As solubility in an oxic sediment from the river Weisse Elster was low (max. 0.5 mg/kg), while the total Me solubility reached 60% (3.7 g/kg). The anaerobic leaching tests were performed under the conditions of a nitrogen atmosphere in a special vessel allowing the redox potential and the pH of the solution to be continuously recorded. In the lake sediment without adding S°, the As solubility increased temporarily; up to 9% of the total As became soluble, and As (III) was the dominant As soluble species (20 mg/kg). In the late leaching phase (-300 mV), the total soluble As decreased, and As (V) became the major soluble species (3.9 mg/kg). In the presence of S°, soluble As and Me were immobilized. The inhibition of As and Me release can be explained by fixation as insoluble sulphides, suggesting that immobilization was driven by dissimilatory sulphur reduction. The data indicate that the availability of oxidizable sulphur and the oxidation state of the polluted material play an important role in assessing the release of arsenic and heavy metals, including anaerobic conditions. Attention has to be paid to the maintaining of strong anaerobic conditions in sulphur-rich materials in order to prevent the mobilization of pollutants.

Degradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Waste Wood

PAH-contaminated waste wood is a serious environmental problem. As an alternative to incineration and landfill disposal, wood containing PAHs may be detoxified by composting. The efficiency of this process depends on the composting conditions. The aerobic treatment of PAH-containing wood was therefore investigated under varying environmental conditions with particular attention to the kinetics of PAH degradation and wood mineralization. The composting of pine wood spiked with 2 g/kg phenanthrene, anthracene and pyrene each and subsequently artificially aged was studied on a laboratory-scale using a respiration analyzer. The temperature was found to highly influence both PAH degradation and wood decay. The fastest and most extensive PAH degradation and wood mineralization were found at 30°C. Higher temperatures particularly inhibited the degradation of anthracene and pyrene. The addition of urea markedly accelerated both PAH degradation and wood mineralization. Only small amounts of urea were needed to maximize PAH degradation, whereas higher amounts of urea were required to maximize wood mineralization. Urea hydrolyzes to ammonium carbonate, which in turn forms highly volatile ammonia. When more then 2 g/kg urea-N was added to the wood, excessive nitrogen disappeared as ammonia via the gas phase. Using nitrate instead of urea dramatically reduced both PAH degradation and wood mineralization. Although a slightly alkaline pH seemed to promote PAH degradation, it has to be taken into account that this experiment was carried out with nitrate as an N source rather than urea to avoid any N losses at high pH values. Glucose as a cosubstrate neither accelerated PAH degradation nor stimulated wood decay. Molasses as a cosubstrate actually inhibited PAH degradation since it contains much salt and alkalinized the rot material.

Elimination of heavy metals from process waters of the bioleaching process by electrolysis

2 ConclusionsThe investigations into the membrane electrolysis cell show that electrochemical metal separation from bioleaching process waters can represent a practical alternative for metal separation by alcalization, Coal and platinized titanium material exhibit good anodic resistance at the current densities tested. By contrast, high-grade steel and to some extent lead anodes were dissolved and are hence unsuitable for this purpose. However, for practical application, suitable ways are required to discharge the precipitates containing heavy metals deposited on the electrodes from the electrolysis cell and to prevent membrane clogging. Regarding the main components zinc, manganese, and nickel, the combination electrodes proved to be suitable for eliminating the heavy metals from the aqueous phase.Another way of treating diluted process waters containing sulphuric acidic and heavy metals is to concentrate the sulphuric acid in the anode region and to precipitate the heavy metals in the cathode region. The sulphuric acid recovered could then be returned to the leaching process, hence avoiding wastewater.