Remediation of weathered diesel-oil contaminated soils using

biopile systems: An amendment selection and pilot-scale study

Miguel Arteaga(1), Miguel Cantero(2), Jorge Galvan (3), Maria Jose Perez(4)
Universidad de Córdoba
Facultad de ingeniería
Departamento de Ingeniería ambiental
Montería
2023
 ¿Qué son las biopilas?

Las biopilas son una forma de tratamiento de

suelo contaminados de tipo ex situ; el suelo a
limpiar es extraído de su sitio original y
llevado a un lugar de tratamiento. En seguida
es depositado en la superficie o en una piscina
previamente excavada; se forman montones de
suelo y se permite la acción degradadora de
microorganismos propios del suelo o externos
inoculados.
 Ventajas de las biopilas

Los contaminantes se destruyen en vez de pasar a otra condición.

El diseño y construcción son relativamente fáciles

El saneamiento del suelo se lleva a cabo en un periodo de entre 3 y 6 meses

El suelo saneado mediante biopilas no requiere ser confinado despúes

 Limitaciones
Los hidrocarburos aromaticos policiclicos (HAP) de cinco y 6 anillos
son dificilemente degradables en las biopilas

Las biopilas no son efectivas para concentraciones de HTPsuperiores a

50.000mg/kg

La presencia de metales pesados pueden inhibir el crecimiento de

microorganismos
 Importancia de los
microorganismos en la biopila
Desde la más mínima contaminación con hidrocarburos del petróleo se reducen las
poblaciones microbianas, en casi todos los ambientes hay microorganismos con capacidad de
degradar hidrocarburos.
las bacterias aeróbicas degradadoras de hidrocarburos (Caulobacter, Pseudomonas,
Rhodococcus, Sphingomonas) se ven beneficiadas por las condiciones en las biopilas, y la
dominancia relativa de éstas se reduce con el compostaje, al ir disminuyendo la disponibilidad
de los compuestos que se degradan con mayor facilidad.
 INTRODUCTION

this pilot-scale study, the effectiveness of enhanced bioremediation via biopile processes for
the cleanup of WDO-polluted soils was evaluated using a series of biopile systems with
different amendmentsThe soils of many existing and former tank farms are contaminated
by total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) due to the leakages of different oil products
including gasoline, diesel, and fuel oils from pipelines and storage tanks. Components of
petroleum products can cause genotoxicities and diseases to humans and animals.

In this pilot-scale study, the effectiveness of enhanced bioremediation via biopile processes
for the cleanup of WDO-polluted soils was evaluated using a series of biopile systems with
different amendments.
 Materials and methods

Study Area
MetaMIS
software
analysis Materials

Topics
metage
nomics Biopiles
analysis design

Sample
analysis
 Study Area
It corresponds to a former
tank farm located in the city
of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as a
pilot scale site. The tank farm
was built to store diesel, jet
fuel and fuel oil in the early
1970s. An oil leak from a
diesel tank was discovered in
1989, leading to soil
contamination on the site.

Tabla 1. Características de un SVCA Básico

Methodological design

Design and management of in situ

biopiles systems on a pilot scale Evaluation of the effectiveness of
for the treatment of soils different supplementary
contaminated by WDO. amendments on the
biodegradation efficiency of TPH.

Carrying out chromatographic Evaluation of community changes and

microbial diversity, microbial
analyzes to evaluate the
interaction and dominant bacteria
decomposition of representative
using metagenomic sequencing
petroleum hydrocarbons during analysis
biodegradation processes.
 Materials
Red bran (BR) application as nutrient and carbon substrate
amendments.
Mix with instant water - soluble fertilizer (WF).

Mix with highly oxygenated water (OW).

Inoculation of TPH-degrading bacteria (TDB).

Natural attenuation (NA)

Addition of mixed supplements that include RB, WF, OW

and TDB (MIX).
 Biopiles design
Diseño de biopila. Tomado de (Liu et al 2021)

Each biopile contained 5 m3 of WDO-contaminated soils with a

dimension of 2.5 m (L) × 2 m (W) × 1 m (H).
For each destination biopile, a volume of 5 m3 of
contaminated soil and the amount of amendment was
configured according to the type used. Table 2
indicates these configurations.

Tabla 3. Justificación de ubicación de estaciones de SO2 y NO2 para SVCA tipo II

 Sample analysis.
For each sampling event, triplicate samples were collected from each biopile and
analyzed for TPH concentrations and other related parameters. The C6a C40
hydrocarbons in TPH were analyzed following the procedures outlined in the
Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) (TEPA, 2013).

The following first order decay equation was used to

determine the biodegradation rate of TPH:
 Metagenomic analysis
A soil sample (mixture of three soil samples collected at
different locations) from each biopile was used for 16S
metagenomic analysis after 28 days of operation.
Results and discussion
Compared to the TPH removal efficiencies in the
NA group (approximately 27%), all other biopile
groups with different amendments achieved much
higher treatment efficiencies.
The highest TPH removal efficiency
(approximately 79%) was obtained in the MIX
bio-cell system followed by the RB and WF bio-
cell systems, which had TPH removal efficiencies
of approximately 73% and 68%, respectively
There were 55 and 41 % TPH removal efficiencies
in the OW and TDB groups
In this study, all biopiles were tilled to obtain air supplements twice
a week. Thus, the oxygen content in the biopile soils was between 6
and 18% during the operation.
According to the results of other studies, the addition of bulking
agents (such as RB) could increase the permeability of the soil,
improve the water retention capacity and increase the oxygen
content of the soil.
 TPH and biomarker decay analyses

Chromatogram analysis could be applied to determine the trend of TPH

biodegradation, biodegradable components, and recalcitrant compounds (referred to as
biomarkers).
chromatograms from day 24 of the run show that straight chain aliphatics (C < 12 and
C12 to C20) biodegraded, and the remaining compounds were mainly branched chain
aliphatics (C12 to C20.
 Evaluation of the decomposition rate of TPH

Compared with the RB, WF, and MIX

groups, the other three biopiles (NA, OW,
and TDB groups) had relatively lower
decomposition rates, with the NA group
having the lowest decomposition rate.

higher decomposition rates were observed in the RB, WF and MIX

bio-cell systems. Among them, the RB biopile had the highest
decomposition rate of TPH (3.22 × 10−21/d) followed by MIX and
WF biopiles with decomposition rates of 3.2 × 10−2 and 3 ×
10−21/day.
 Conclusion
In this pilot-scale study, the biopile systemwithmixed
supplements(MIX group) had the highest TPH removal
efficiency (79% of TPH removal) followed by RB group with
approximately 73% of TPH removal during the 42-day
operational period. The carbon substrates and nutrients in
MIX and RB amendments could effectively activate the
intrinsic microbial activities, and this was beneficial to the soil
remediation
Unicórdoba, calidad, innovación e inclusión para la transformación del territorio.