BIOREMEDIATION OF OIL-CONTAMINATED DESERT SOIL - THE KUWAITI EXPERIENCE

The remediation of the soil contaminated during the invasion of Kuwait is currently being considered. Three different bioremediation approac hes were used: landfarming, windrow composting piles, and static biove nting piles. Up to 82.5 and 90.5% reduction in the total petroleum hyd rocarbons and total alkanes, respectively, were removed within a 12-mo nth period, depending on the bioremediation method used. Excellent res ults were produced by the bioventing soil pile method, despite the low operation and maintenance cost of this particular method, in comparis on with the other two methods. In general, the results showed that bio remediation is effective in the remediation of oil contamination. This paper summarizes the results obtained from the field demonstration an d discusses the prospective of using biological methods for large-scal e remediation of the oil-contaminated soil in Kuwait. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd.