Bioremediation of Soils Contaminated with Gasoline in Bioreactors Containing Earthworms Eisenia Fetida and Mixture of Vermicompost and Raw Activated Sludge

Nowadays, soil pollution with total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) is one of the major environmental issues caused serious problems to human and other living organisms. One of the best and most reliable methods of bioremediation is the use of earthworms known as vermin-remediation. In this study, bioremediation of gasoline-contaminated soil using Eisenia Fetida, the mixture of activated sludge and compost was evaluated.

In order to determine the efficiency of bioremediation to removal gasoline from contaminated soil, cow compost and urban sewage sludge with a weight ratio of 1: 0.35:0.25, was used. Experiments were carried out in 6 reactors with different concentrations of diesel (10 and 30 g / kg soil), a different number of Eisenia Fetida earthworm (10 and 20) at ambient temperature during 90 days. To compare the performance of biodegradation of gasoline using Eisenia Fetida earthworm, two control reactors that contained only contaminated soil with two ratios of gasoline, vermicompost and activated sludge, were used. The (TPH) decomposition rate was measured by GC-FID. Results of this study were analyzed by Minitab version 17 software.

Results indicated reactor No.3 has the best removal efficiency of light hydrocarbons during 90 days. the removal efficiency of average hydrocarbons was  70% and heavy hydrocarbons with the highest removal efficiency of 68% in reactor No. 4 with characteristics Soil polluted with 10 g / kg of soil + 20 number of Eisenia Fetida, With a significant difference of other reactors.

Based on the results of this study, the degradability of hydrocarbons has increased significantly with the addition of organic modifying materials and the increase in the number of earthworms.