Effect of various chemical oxidation reagents on soil indigenous microbial diversity in remediation of soil contaminated by PAHs

Abstract

Chemical oxidation is a promising pretreatment step coupled with bioremediation for removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The effectiveness of Fenton, modified Fenton, potassium permanganate and activated persulfate oxidation treatments on the real contaminated soils collected from a coal gas plant (263.6 ± 73.3 mg kg−1 of the Σ16 PAHs) and a coking plant (385.2 ± 39.6 mg kg−1 of the Σ16 PAHs) were evaluated. Microbial analyses showed only a slight impact on indigenous microbial diversity by Fenton treatment, but showed the inhibition of microbial diversity and delayed population recovery by potassium permanganate reagent. After potassium permanganate treatment, the microorganism mainly existed in the soil was Pseudomonas or Pseudomonadaceae. The results showed that total organic carbon (TOC) content in soil was significantly increased by adding modified Fenton reagent (1.4%–2.3%), while decreased by adding potassium permanganate (0.2%–1%), owing to the nonspecific and different oxidative properties of chemical oxidant. The results also demonstrated that the removal efficiency of total PAHs was ordered: permanganate (90.0%–92.4%) > activated persulfate (81.5%–86.54%) > modified Fenton (81.5%–85.4%) > Fenton (54.1%–60.0%). Furthermore, the PAHs removal efficiency was slightly increased on the 7th day after Fenton and modified Fenton treatments, about 14.6%, and 14.4% respectively, and the PAHs removal efficiency only enhanced 4.1% and 1.3% respectively from 1st to 15th day after potassium permanganate and activated persulfate treatments. The oxidants greatly affect the growth of soil indigenous microbes, which cause further influence for PAHs degradation by bioremediation.