Abstract
The enhanced biodegradation of oil-contaminated soil by fixing microorganisms with corn cob biochar was investigated. It was found that the components of oil in the test soil were mainly straight-chain alkanes and branched alkanes. When using corn cob biochar as a carrier to immobilize microorganisms, the best particle size of corn cob biochar as an immobilization carrier was 0.08 mm, and the best immobilization time was 18 h. SEM analysis confirmed that the microorganisms were immobilized on the corn cob biochar. Immobilized microorganisms exhibited high biodegradability under stress to high concentrations of petroleum pollutants, heavy metals, and organic pollutants. Infrared spectroscopy analysis showed that oxygen-containing groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, and methoxy on the surface of biochar were involved in the complexation of heavy metals. The mechanism of immobilization promoted microbial degradation of oil contamination was explained by gas chromatography mass. First, alkanes and aromatics were adsorbed by corn cob biochar and passed to immobilized microorganisms to promote their degradation. Their bioavailability increased, especially for aromatics. Second, biochar provided a more suitable environment for microorganisms to degrade. Third, the conversion of ketones to acids was accelerated during the biodegradation of alkanes, and the biodegradation of alkanes was accelerated by immobilization. The biodegradable efficiency of oil by immobilized microorganisms in soil was 70.10% within 60 days, 28.80% higher than that of free microorganisms. The degradation of immobilized microorganisms was highly correlated with the activities of catalase, urease, and polyphenol oxidase.
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Acknowledgements
The research was supported by Open Fund of State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Collaborative Control and Remediation of Soil and Water Pollution (GHBK-003), Opening Project of Oil & Gas Field Applied Chemistry Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province (YQKF202107), Science and Technology Cooperation Project of the CNPC-SWPU Innovation Alliance (2020CX020300), and Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Shale Gas Exploration, Ministry of Natural Resources, Chongqing Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources (KLSGE-MLR-202004).
Funding
The research was supported by Open Fund of State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Collaborative Control and Remediation of Soil and Water Pollution (GHBK-003), Opening Project of Oil & Gas Field Applied Chemistry Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province (YQKF202107), Science and Technology Cooperation Project of the CNPC-SWPU Innovation Alliance (2020CX020300), and Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Shale Gas Exploration, Ministry of Natural Resources, Chongqing Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources (KLSGE-MLR-202004).
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HR: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing—Original Draft. Y-PD: Formal analysis, Data Curation, Visualization. LM: Methodology, Data Curation. ZW: Funding acquisition, Project administration. LM: Investigation, Resources. DY: Data Curation, Resources. BW: Visualization, Funding acquisition. Z-YL: Writing—Review & Editing, Funding acquisition, Supervision.
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Ren, H., Deng, Y., Ma, L. et al. Enhanced biodegradation of oil-contaminated soil oil in shale gas exploitation by biochar immobilization. Biodegradation 33, 621–639 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-09999-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-09999-6