SLURRY-BASED BIOTREATMENT OF POLYARYL CONTAMINANTS SORBED ONTO SOIL

Whole soil samples were obtained from a site immediately adjacent to a n impoundment used for disposal of still bottoms residue from a benzen e, toluene and xylenes (BTX) production process. Research examined the effects of other operating conditions on the biotreatment process suc h as inoculum source, temperature and suspended solids concentration. The effects of humic substances and humic acid metabolites on the biod egradation of polyaryl species and measurements of biological activity also were assessed. Uncontaminated whole soil, was fed to the active bioreactor to determine the contribution of humic material to measurem ents of the biodegradation process including UV absorbance of slurry e xtracts, aqueous total organic carbon (TOC), carbon dioxide evolution and acid production. Significant reductions of marker species concentr ations, often to levels below detection limits, are observed with low, medium and some high molecular weight aromatic and polyaryl species.