Evaluation of Phytoremediation for Field-Scale Degradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 126, Issue 6
Abstract
Laboratory studies have shown phytoremediation to be a feasible method for remediating surface soils contaminated with organic compounds. Evaluation of this technology in the field is difficult because of the inherent spatial heterogeneity in the hydraulic and chemical properties of the soil. In this study, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) degradation was monitored in a field site with three vegetative treatment plots, and one control plot undergoing natural attenuation. Within each treatment, TPH concentrations were monitored at 20 locations over time to study the phytoremediation potential of the different vegetative treatments. For comparing the performance of these treatments in a quantitative manner, first-order kinetics were assumed to be applicable at the local scale. The degradation rates and the initial contaminant concentrations were treated as spatially correlated random fields. Field-scale behavior was evaluated based on temporal variations of the means and variances of concentrations. Our results indicate the importance of spatial variability for an accurate assessment of phytoremediation in the field. From the degradation rate constants and mean reduction in TPH, rye grass and St. Augustine grass appear to be superior to sorghum and the unvegetated control in reducing contaminant concentrations in the field.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
April, W., and Sims, R. C. (1990). “Evaluation of the use of prairie grasses for stimulating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons treatments in soil.” Chemosphere, 20, 253–265.
2.
Atlas, R. M., and Bartha, R. (1980). Microbial ecology: Fundamentals and applications. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
3.
Brownie, C., Bowman, D. T., and Burton, J. W. (1993). “Estimating spatial variation in analysis of data from yield trials: A comparison of methods.” Agronomy J., 85(6), 1244–1253.
4.
Chen, Z. ( 1997). “Phytoremediation of total petroleum hydrocarbons.” PhD thesis, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
5.
Clark, I. (1979). Practical geostatistics. Applied Science Publication, London.
6.
Cunningham, S. D., and Berti, W. R. (1993). “Remediation of contaminated soils with green plants: An overview.” In vitro Cell Dev. Biol., 29P, Bioremediation through Biotechnology, Congress on Cell and Tissue Culture, San Diego, Calif., 207–212.
7.
Dagan, G. (1986). “Statistical theory of groundwater flow and transport: Pore to laboratory, laboratory to formation, and formation to regional scale.” Water Resour. Res., 22(9), 120S–134S.
8.
Englund, E., and Sparks, A. (1991). “GEO-EAS 1.2.1: Geostatistical Environmental Assessment Software.” EPA-600/8-91/008, Envir. Monitoring Sys. Lab., Ofc. of Res. and Devel., U.S. EPA, Las Vegas, Nev.
9.
Grondona, M. O., and Cressie, N. (1991). “Using spatial considerations in the analysis of experiments.” Technometrics, 33(4), 381–392.
10.
Isaaks, E. H., and Srivastava, R. M. (1989). An introduction to applied geostatistics. Oxford University Press, New York.
11.
Journel, A. G., and Huijbregts, C. H. (1978). Mining geostatistics. Academic, New York.
12.
Kitanidis, P. K., and Lane, R. W. (1985). “Maximum likelihood parameter estimation of hydrological processes by the Gauss-Newton method.” J. Hydro., Amsterdam, 79, 53–71.
13.
Mulla, D. J., Bhatti, A. V., and Kunkel, R. ( 1990). “Methods for removing spatial variability from field research trials.” Advances in soil science, Vol. 13, Springer, New York, 201–213.
14.
Newman, L. A., et al. (1997). “Uptake and biotransformation of trichloroethylene by hybrid poplars.” Envir. Sci. and Technol., 31(4), 1062–1067.
15.
Russo, D. (1984). “Design of an optimal sampling network for estimating the variogram.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 48, 708–716.
16.
Russo, D., and Jury, W. A. (1987). “A theoretical study of the estimation of the correlation scale in spatially variable fields. 1. Stationary fields.” Water Resour. Res., 23(7), 1257–1268.
17.
Schwab, A. P., and Banks, M. K. ( 1994). “Biologically mediated dissipation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in the root zone.” Bioremediation through rhizosphere technology, ACS Symp. Ser. 563, T. A. Anderson and J. R. Coats, eds., American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 132–141.
18.
Schnoor, J. L., Licht, L. A., McCutcheon, S. C., Wolfe, N. L., and Carreira, L. H. (1995). “Phytoremediation of organic and nutrient contaminants.” Envir. Sci. and Technol., 29(7), 318A–323A.
19.
Trangmar, B. B., Yost, R. S., and Uehara, G. (1985). “Application of geostatistics to spatial studies of soil properties.” Adv. in Agronomy, 38, 45–94.
20.
van Es, H. M., and van Es, C. L. (1993). “Spatial nature of randomization and its effect on the outcome of field experiments.” Agronomy J., 85, 420–428.
21.
Vieira, S. R., Hatfield, J. L., Nielsen, D. R., and Biggar, J. W. (1983). “Geostatistical theory and application to variability of some agronomic properties.” Hilgardia, 51(3), 1075.
22.
Walton, B. T., et al. ( 1994). “Rhizosphere microbial communities as a plant defense to toxic substances in soils.” Bioremediation through Rhizosphere Technology, ACS Symp. Ser. 563, T. A. Anderson and J. R. Coats, eds., American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 82– 92.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 126 • Issue 6 • June 2000
Pages: 483 - 490
History
Received: Mar 22, 1999
Published online: Jun 1, 2000
Published in print: Jun 2000
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.