Period Covered by Report: January 4, 2003 to April 3, 2003
Date of Report: April 4, 2003
EPA Grant Number: 14-2-1201270-94843
Title: A Continuation: Humate-Induced Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Surface Soils
Investigators: Mark A. Nanny, R. Paul Philp and Vlad E. Andrus
Institution: University of Oklahoma
EPA Project Officer: Bala Krishnan
Project Period: September 4, 2002 to September 3, 2003
Project Amount: $133,136
Research Category: Bioremediation of oil spills
Objectives of the Research Project:
The objectives of this proposed research are: 1) to measure the biodegradation and bioavailability of 14C-labeled heptadecane that is strongly adsorbed to humate, 2) to examine the adsorption of gasoline, gasoline oxygenates as a part of gasoline itself, and diesel fuel to humates, as well as their biodegradation in soil microcosms, and 3) to assess humate-induced remediation on a pilot-scale by conducting ex-situ tests of soils contaminated with crude oil, diesel fuel, and gasoline.
Progress Summary/Accomplishments:
Approximately 150 kg of each of test soil (pristine, gasoline- , diesel fuel-, and crude oil-contaminated), required to create 448 microcosms, was collected from a depth of approximately 3 to 5 feet at the Waggoner site (an abandoned oil refinery), located thirty miles west of Wichita Falls, Texas. Access to the site, as well as identification of contaminated regions (type and amount of contaminant), was provided by SURBEC. SURBEC also loaned us coring equipment. The results of GC-MS analyses of dichloromethane-acetone extracts from all three types of contaminated soils convincingly demonstrated that they contain appropriate concentrations of moderately degraded petroleum hydrocarbons, thus meeting criteria required for our investigation. Analysis of pristine soil shows that it is practically free of petroleum hydrocarbons and therefore will serve as a control in both microcosm and field experiments. Microcosm experiments are currently in a progress. Three sets of duplicate samples (56 microcosms in each set) for time 0, day 15 and day 30 were sacrificed and extracted for analyses. Last month, 2 tons of Menefee humate, mined in Cuba, New Mexico, were bought from the vendor for the field experiment implementation. We are currently finalizing the last-minute details with SURBEC for implementing the pilot-scale field-tests at the Waggoner site before the end of April. We are analyzing the crude oil sorption capacity of the Menefee humate by py-GC method and comparing the results with the humate used in our previous experiments.
Publications/Presentations:
Nanny, M.A., Andrus, V.E., Philp, R.P. (2003) "Chemical Characterization of Humate" in progress, to be submitted to Org. Geochemistry. Nanny, M.A., Andrus, V.E., Philp, R.P. (2003) "Evidence for Adsorption and Biodegradation Mechanisms Facilitating Humate-Induced Remediation of Petroleum-Contaminated Surface Soils", Extended Abstracts of the 21st International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry, Krakow, Poland , September 2003 (accepted). Andrus, V.E., Nanny, M.A., Philp, R.P. (2003) "Humate-enhanced remediation of crude oil-contaminated surface soils: Adsorption studies and microcosm results", Extended Abstracts for the Environmental Chemistry Division, American Chemical Society, 225th American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, March 2003.
Future Activities:
To implement field ex-situ experiment consisting of 20 windrows at Waggoner site. To continue Soxhlet extraction and GC analyses of microcosm extracts. To initiate study of pilot-scale test samples for identification biodegradation vs. sorption processes To measure the biodegradation and bioavailability of 14C-labeled heptadecane that is strongly adsorbed to humate.
Supplemental Keywords:
Humate, gasoline, diesel fuel, crude oil, microcosm, field test