Remediation and Management of Petrochemical-Polluted Sites Under Climate Change Conditions

Abstract

Groundwater serves as a major drinking water resource throughout the world. The water quality in the soil–water system has been impacted in emerging industrialized countries mainly by improper disposal of waste and wastewater from population growth and industrial manufacturing of products. Remediation of polluted sites requires a better understanding of climate change conditions. The traditional treatment technology involving physicochemical and biological methods is not efficient or effective to treat the contaminants to acceptable levels. Thus, the focus has now shifted in favor of using green and sustainable approaches that employ native microorganisms to destroy pollutants. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present a detailed framework for application of engineering principles and economic and regulatory constraints to determine a remedial action strategy and to select technologies to implement the strategy for a given data set at a site. This chapter discusses the physical, chemical, and biological methods used to remediate petrochemically polluted soils and groundwater. The emphasis of the chapter is on present practical applications and technologies that employ sustainable methods. The knowledge pool of this chapter will help in applying decontamination techniques to petrochemically polluted soil–water systems.