ELECTRO-BIOREMEDIATION AND EVALUATION OF BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY IN SOILS CONTAMINATED BY HYDROCARBONS

Resumen

The growing demand of actions for soil remediation has resulted in the development of alternative technologies, especially for applications of techniques in situ, caused for the many forms of contamination of soil and underground water with petroleum hydrocarbons. The present work proposed an electro-bioremediation technique to evaluate the capacity degradation of the pollutants through microorganisms present in the polluted soil. The monitoring of the degradation of hydrocarbons was accompanied through chemical analyses of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH), Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). The microbiological activity was monitored through analyses of Colony-Forming Unit (CFU). The results showed that rates of degradation of the xylene, toluene and ethylbenzene had an order of 69%, 60% and 10%. The microbiologic activity presented an increase of 12.5 times for the Mould and Yeasts, and of 178.5 times for aerobic microorganisms. The isolation and biodegradation analysis pointed the existence of 26 different morphotypes, of these, 20 morphotypes (77%) possess capacity to degrade hydrocarbons that, 60% were found in the areas of influence of the cathode and 40% of the anode. The yeast-like material was isolated and identified, where the predominant genus was Penicillium (50%), Paecilomyces 16.6%, Trichoderma 16.6 % and Cladosporium 16.6%.