Field trial on removal of petroleum‐hydrocarbon pollutants using a microbial consortium for bioremediation and rhizoremediation

Summary Petroleum waste sludges are toxic and dangerous that is why environmental protection agencies have declared their treatment top priority. Physicochemical treatments are expensive and environmentally unfriendly, while alternative biological treatments are less costly but, in general, work at a slower pace. An in situ bioremediation and rhizoremediation field-scale trial was performed in an area contaminated with oil refinery sludge under semiarid climate. The bioremediation and rhizoremediation treatments included the use of an artificial consortium made up of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, and the combined use of the mentioned consortium along with pasture plants respectively. Rhizoremediation revealed that the development of vegetation favoured the evolution of indigenous microbiota with potential to remove petroleum wastes. This was inferred as the decline of total petroleum hydrocarbons 7 months after the biological treatment.