Bioaugmented remediation of high concentration BTEX-contaminated groundwater by permeable reactive barrier with immobilized bead

Abstract

Ineffective biostimulation requires immediate development of new technologies for remediation of high concentration BTEX-contaminated (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) groundwater. In this study, bioaugmentation with Mycobacterium sp. CHXY119 and Pseudomonas sp. YATO411 immobilized bead was used to remediate BTEX-contaminated groundwater with about 100mgl−1 in total concentration. The batch test results showed that the CHXY119 and YATO411 immobilized bead completely biodegraded each BTEX compound, and the maximum biodegradation rates were 0.790mgl−1h−1 for benzene, 1.113mgl−1h−1 for toluene, 0.992mgl−1h−1 for ethylbenzene and 0.231mgl−1h−1 for p-xylene. The actual mineralization rates were 10.8% for benzene, 10.5% for toluene, 5.8% for ethylbenzene and 11.4% for p-xylene, which indicated that the bioremediation of BTEX by the immobilized bead requires a rather small oxygen supply. Degradation rates achieved by the bioaugmented permeable reactive barrier (Bio-PRB) system of the immobilized bead were 97.8% for benzene, 94.2% for toluene, 84.7% for ethylbenzene and 87.4% for p-xylene; and the toxicity of the groundwater fell by 91.2% after bioremediation by the bioaugmented PRB, which confirmed its great potential for remediating groundwater with high concentrations of contaminants.