Kinetics of phytoremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil

AbstractEarthmaster and the University of Waterloo have successfully developed plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) – Enhanced Phytoremediation Systems (PEPSystems™) which have been deployed across Canada for the treatment of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), including CCME fractions F2 and F3. A challenge with phytoremediation is to predict the length of time to remediate a site so that site owners will be inclined to use the technology. In previous field trials of PEPSystems, it was determined that PHC was mostly degraded by microbes in the rhizosphere, following first-order exponential decay kinetics. Using new PEPSystems data collected from multiple commercial remediation sites across Western Canada, the kinetic equations of PHC decay were tested to determine if remediation time was accurately predicted. In general, when compared to the predicted time to remediation endpoint, data from recent commercial field applications showed that 35% and 20% less time was needed to reach...