Bioremediation kinetics in diesel oil polluted soil, aimed to geophysical monitoring

In this work the kinetics of aerobic bioremediation of diesel oil polluted soil was evaluated comparing microcosms at different values of water content (u%) and carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N). The percentage of degraded diesel oil is influenced by these two parameters due to their relevance for microbial metabolism. In addition, water content influences substrate dispersion and the contact between microorganisms and pollutant. The experimental runs allowed to model the process kinetics by the first and the second order model. In general, the best removal efficiency is achieved with C/N = 120 and u% = 8%, with the half-life time in the order of 70 days. On this base, a geophysical model was tested to predict the dielectrical permittivity of a sandy soil partially saturated with water, gas and diesel oil. The result of the modelling activity can be useful to the experimental design for monitoring the diesel oil degradation at laboratory scale.