Degradation of soil polluted with petroleum products using enzymatic accelerating reagent

Abstract

Pollution with petroleum wastes is a serious environmental problem that must be treated considerably. Artificially polluted soil with oily contaminants mixtures was treated biologically using aerated bioreactor. The used oily mixtures used in this study are petroleum sludge, lubricating oil and crude oil. Crude oil and petroleum sludge were obtained from oil refinery of Al-Romayla at Al-Basrah governorate, tests were examined at the Ministry of Science and Technology. These wastes were mixed separately with soil in a ratio 7(pollutant):100 (soil) and treated by using the bioreactor. The degradation ability of microorganisms existed in the soil had been examined in low weather temperature with the aid of enzymatic reagent. The efficiency of removing the organic hydrocarbons after five weeks of treatment was 68.2 %, 74.4 % and 77.7 % for the petroleum sludge, lubricating and crude oil, respectively. The obtained results show the ability of the enzymatic reagent in the activation of micoorganisms to degrade heavy hydrocarbons substances even in cold weather.