Biostabilization Technology for Treating PAH- and PCP-Impacted Soil to Environmentally Acceptable Endpoints

Federal Integrated Biotreatment Research Consortium (FIBRC): Flask to Field Initiative

“…Solid phase treatments, commonly known as landfarming and composting, are two of the most commonly applied technologies for the remediation of PAH-contaminated soil (Gray et al, 2000;Harmsen, 1991;Mueller et al, 1991 a,b;Mueller-Hurtig et al, 1993;Yare, 1991). Most PAH-contaminated soils contain a significant number of PAH degraders that have been enriched because of the presence of the PAHs but they are often constrained in their degradation capability because of some limiting factor.…”

“…The degradation that results from solid phase remediation often follows a two-stage process involving an initial rapid phase with extensive PAH degradation (a few months) and a second slower phase of degradation (months to years) with relatively little further change in PAH concentration (Brown et al, 1995;Cornelissen et al, 1998;Mueller et al, 1998;Pollard et al, 1994). Differences in desorption rate from soil particles into the interstitial water is frequently cited as the cause of the two-stage process.…”