Experimental bioventing intervention for the decontamination of the subsoil of a site contaminated with mineral oils

After extensive chemical characterizations of an area contaminated by hydrocarbons, the possibility of intervening through a bioremediation intervention of the subsoils involved in the remediation has been evaluated.

Presence of colonies of oxidizing hydrocarbon bacteria grown on carbon-free soil with the exception of hydrocarbons present in the well on the plate

.The microbiology laboratory investigations of Ecosistemi focused on the detection of naturally self-selected heterotrophic bacterial species at the site, after approximately 20 years of exposure to the contaminant (C>12 hydrocarbons).

The species showed the ability to metabolize the pollutants present at the site both in cultures dissolved in aqueous medium, and on solid substrate in the absence of other forms of carbon in addition to the mixture of hydrocarbons present at the contaminated site. The data gave the possibility to develop the design of the intervention with parameters aimed at bioremediation of the site.