Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation
Open Access

Oil Contamination; Bioremediation; Geotechnical properties; Clay mineralogy

Introduction

Contamination with oil decreased the maximum dry density, the ideal moisture content, the soil's coefficient of consolidation, unconfined compressive strength, shear strength, swelling pressure, and unconfined compressive strength. Additionally, pollution raised the soil's compressibility, swelling index, and compression ratio. Additionally, bioremediation increased OMC, shear strength, cohesion, internal friction angle, failure strain, porosity, compression index, and settlement while decreasing MDD, UCS, swelling index, free swelling, and swelling pressure of soil in comparison to contaminated soil. Bioremediation also reduced soil contamination by about. Microstructural investigations demonstrated that oil pollution did not change the soil's chemical composition, elemental composition, or mineral composition. The bioremediation greatly raised the aforementioned metrics while reducing the particular soil surface area [1]. The process of bioremediation produced quasi-fibrous textures as well as porous and agglomerated structure Soil mechanical qualities were negatively impacted by oil pollution, but were enhanced by bioremediation [2]. Humans' ruthless use of natural resources and industrialisation, which contaminated the air, water, and soil, wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. Oil and its derivatives are regarded as one of the most prevalent pollutants due to their significance and the extensive use of oil-related businesses [3]. Oil spills are known as the leakage and discharge of oil into the environment from petroleum extraction, storage, distribution, and refinement facilities, which can endanger the ecology of the ocean, the coast, and the land. Oil spills have terrible effects on the environment, the economy, and society [4].

Discussion

The two largest oil disasters were at Deepwater Horizon in 2010 and Exxon Valdez the worst effects on the environment [5]. Engineering geology and geoenvironmental engineering are concerned with predicting the severity and scope of oil spills in marine or inland settings as well as offering restoration options based on the characteristics of the affected region. It is a multidisciplinary technique that may be carried out using environmental impact analysis and geological hazard assessment [6]. One of the most serious types of pollution, soil contamination modifies the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of soil as well as its geotechnical characteristics [7].

Additionally, spreading pollution in building foundation soil might have disastrous consequences [8]. Preaxial experiments were used to examine the shear strength of quartz sand contaminated with motor oil, and they discovered a considerable reduction in internal friction [9]. Due to oil contamination, loose and thick sands both showed a modest reduction in strength and permeability and an increase in compressibility [10]. Angle and a significant rise in the volumetric strain were also noted. They observed that light gas oil and benzene had less of an impact than crude oil does on the strength metrics of soil. Oil contamination resistance of various clay minerals with varied pore fluid dielectric constants. By varying the ethanol content in distilled water, they altered the dielectric constant values.

Conclusion

The findings of their experiments demonstrated a correlation between the undrained shear strengths of Na- and Casmectites and the real fluid ratio when normalised to the liquid limit. Given that kaolinites and illites contain significantly less exchangeable cations this results in substantially narrower Atterberg limit ranges than smectites and reduces the role of the dielectric constant to practically pure particleparticle interactions. Additionally, the undrained shear strengths may be governed by the significantly higher particle sizes of the kaolinite and illites. Utilizing various remediation procedures is necessary to restore polluted sites to their pre-contamination state and transform contaminated materials into ecologically and geotechnically sound building materials. There are many different remediation techniques available, including biological, chemical, thermal, physicochemical, and integrated remediation technologies, depending on the type and concentration of the contaminants, the soil type, the characteristics of the contaminated site, the cost and time required for the process, as well as the environmental impact and effectiveness. Reviewing the retention, volatilization, and transport processes while taking into account the physico-chemical characteristics in soil of hydrocarbons. They discovered that by reducing the soil's moisture content, hydrocarbon vapour phase transfer and soil retention increased, whereas no aqueous phase liquid movement decreased. Because it can permanently remove oil pollution, has cheap costs, tolerates no long-term adverse effects, and is environmentally acceptable, bioremediation is regarded as an effective and widely accepted method for treating polluted soils.

Acknowledgement

None

Conflict of Interest

None

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