Benzene biodegradability tests on a residual granitic soil

Abstract

Benzene is a component of most fuels and an important industrial solvent. It is widely spread in soils, sediments and groundwater near diesel/gasoline service stations, refineries and in other industrial areas. For benzene, as other BTEXs, the most used in-situ remediation technology is Soil Vapour Extraction followed by bioremediation. In the present work, a bacterial consortium was developed for the systematic study of the benzene bioremediation of soils contaminated. The effectiveness of biodegradation was studied in a residual granitic soil. The developed microorganism consortium was collected from a protection area of crude storage tanks in a refinery. Our results showed that the developed consortium was efficient in degrading benzene (about 18 days for soil remediation contaminated with 140 mg of benzene per kg of residual granitic soil in lab-scale studies).