RemScan: A tool for monitoring the bioremediation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in contaminated soil

Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) represent major environmental contaminants which pose a significant risk to ecosystems and humans heath if left untreated. Bioremediation represents a simple, cheap and environmentally-safe approach to clean up TPH-contaminated sites. Traditional TPH analysis is expensive and time-consuming. Here we assess, for the first time, the potential of RemScan as a fast, accurate and cost-effective portable device to be used as a tool to monitor the bioremediation process. A variety of TPH-contaminated soils were subject to TPH quantitative analysis using RemScan. The TPH values obtained were validated and compared against the results obtained from an accredited external laboratory, which uses Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) for TPH analysis. RemScan showed a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.998 in comparison with the traditional methods, but importantly with a significant reduction in both time and cost. RemScan was successfully used to measure TPH concentrations in bioremediated, weathered-contaminated and highly contaminated soil samples with TPH concentrations varying from 100 to 100,000 mg kg?1. The RemScan Laboratory Station was used to minimize the source of errors associated with human manual handling.