Bioremediation of Diesel Contaminated Loamy Soil using Corn Cob

Abstract

The use of corn cob material for the remediation of petroleum hydrocarbon (diesel) contaminated loamy soil have been investigated in this research work. Biodegradation of pollutants (hydrocarbons) on the loamy soil was very vital as impurities were removed from the soil which might have caused disorder for plant and also make the soil infertile for cropping and domestication activities within rural and urban communities. The corn cob material was dried under sun and room temperature, then crushed and sieved to obtain different particle size of 1.18mm to 0.37mm and 1.86mm to 0.37mm for the room temperature (RT) and sun temperature (ST) respectively, and applied for different weights on 25g, 50g 75g, and 100g on the material to 500g of loamy and swampy soils which were polluted with 100ml of diesel for bioremediation and allowed at time intervals of two (2) weeks sampling till 10weeks. The bio-remediated soils were subjected into analysis and results for total hydrocarbon content (THC) concentration on the effect of corn cob on degradation of the contaminant was determined. A significant degradation occurred after 10 weeks of the remediation process. The THC in the soil reduced to 1003ppm (RT) and 5368ppm (ST) from initial concentration of 37670ppm on application of 100g of corn cob for loamy soil. The percentage reduction in THC was higher for room dried corn cob than sun dried as some of the nutrients in the corn cob were lost to sunlight,  more than 90% THC reduction occurred in the sample treated with 100g room dried corn cob. It was observed that corn cob material was a good bio-remediant and should be adopted for bioremediation process of polluted soils with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Key words: Bioremediation, diesel, contaminated, loamy soil, corn cob, THC