Remediation of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Contaminated Soils and Sediment: State of Knowledge and Perspectives

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) used worldwide between the 1930 and 1980s. Many PCBs can still be found in the environment such as in soils and sediments, even though their use has been heavily restricted. This review summarizes the most frequent remediation solutions including, phytoremediation, microbial degradation, dehalogenation by chemical reagent, and PCBs removal by activated carbon. New insights that emerged from recent studies of PCBs remediation including supercritical water oxidation, ultrasonic radiation, bimetallic systems, nanoscale zero-valent iron based reductive dehalogenation and biofilm covered activated carbon, electrokinetic remediation, and nZVI particles in combination with a second metal are overviewed. Some of these methods are still in the initial development stage thereby requiring further research attention. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each general treatment strategy and promising technology for PCBs remediation are discussed and compared. There is no well-developed single technology, although various possible technologies have been suggested. Therefore, the possibility of using combined technologies for PCB remediation is also here investigated. It is hoped that this present paper can provide a basic framework and a more profound prospect to select successful PCB remediation strategies or combined technologies.

Microbe‐Mediated Extracellular and Intracellular Mineralization: Environmental, Industrial, and Biotechnological Applications

“…Recent studies have also utilized genetic modification of bacteria catabolic genes to enhance biodegradation of these biphenyls. [ 280 ]…”

Recent Advanced Technologies for the Characterization of Xenobiotic-Degrading Microorganisms and Microbial Communities

“…Microbial degradation of polychlorinated bis-phenyles (PCBs) is a promising remediation technology involving two major pathways: aerobic degradation and anaerobic dehalogination (Abraham et al, 2002 ; Pathiraja et al, 2019 ). Bacterial strains Pseudomonas, Rhosocossus, Comamonas, Burkholderia , and Bacillus have been characterized for the oxidative degradation of PCBs through ring cleavage resulting into a common by product of chlorbenzoic acid (Anyasi and Atagana, 2011 ; Jing et al, 2018 ).…”

Efficient simultaneous removal of heavy metals and polychlorobiphenyls from a polluted industrial site by washing the soil with natural humic surfactants

“…Similarly, the soil washings with humic surfactants appear much more efficient than the phytoremediation progressively called upon to reclaim polluted soils, since not only the latter method explores a very thin soil depth but also its contribution to the microbial degradation of PCB is extremely slow (Van Fig. 2 Average percentage (%) of PCB removed in different groups after soil washing with humic acid and water alone at ratio liquid:solid (L/S) of 10:1 and 1:1 Aken et al 2010;Jing et al 2018). In fact, it has been estimated that the phytoremediation of an industrial soil contaminated by relatively biolabile PCB, such as tri-and tetra-CB congeners, would take more than 20 years to be completed (Schwitzguébel 2017).…”