SITE Demonstration of Slurry-Phase Biodegradation of PAH Contaminated Soil

This paper summarizes a joint Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) project on slurry-phase biodegradation and a project to collect information for the data base on Best Demonstrated Available Technologies (BOAT). In this 12-week study, a creosote contaminated soil from the Burlington Northern Superfund site in Brainerd, Minnesota was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the bioslurry reactors. During the demonstration, five 64-liter stainless steel bioreactors, equipped with agitation, aeration and temperature controls were used. The pilot scale study employed a 30 percent slurry, an inoculum of indigenous polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degraders, and inorganic nutrients.

Total PAH degradation averaged 93.4 ± 3.2 percent over all five operating reactors in the 12 weeks with 97.4 percent degradation of the 2- and 3-ring PAHs and 90 percent degradation of the 4- to 6-ring PAHs. A study of the air emissions, both semivolatile compounds such as naphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene and volatile compounds such as toluene, xylene, and benzene, from the units showed that the greatest amount of emissions occurred during the loading of the reactors and during the first few days of operation. Therefore, it may not be cost-effective to require elaborate emissions controls unless there are significant quantities of volatile compounds present in the soil or water to be treated in a bioslurry reactor system.