DECONTAMINATION OF A PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS POLLUTED SOIL BY DIFFERENT BIOREMEDIATION STRATEGIES

Abstract

Romania, as a country producing oil and with a tradition in its processing, unfortunately, is affected by some accidental, undesired phenomena that lead to the environmental pollution with oil, petroleum products and residues resulted from the oil processing. Over 50 thousand ha of agricultural and forestlands are polluted with petroleum hydrocarbons and brine, within the areas of petroleum extraction, transportation and processing. These pollution phenomena induces important changes at the levels of the soil organisms, especially microorganisms, even the extinction of a number of species, disturbing the bio-geo-chemical elements cycles, organic matter mineralization, with severe reduction effect of soil fertility. By avoiding the pollution effects and rebuilding the initial state of ecosystems, the first stage of the sustainable development concept is applied that, in the soil science field represent the optimization of soil function that generate the fertility. In this view, an experiment for rehabilitation of a petroleum-polluted soil was carried out using the different bioremediation in situ strategies.