Abstract
In a previous study on oily sludge disposal by land treatment, PAH as a class were found to be biodegraded more rapidly than the total solvent-extractable hydrocarbons of the sludge. This somewhat surprising result was apparently due to a predominance of low molecular weight PAH (less than or equal to 3 rings) in the sludge sample. The higher molecular weight PAH (greater than or equal to 4 rings) exhibited persistence that seemed to increase with the number of rings and the degree of ring condensation. In order to verify and extend these observations, the authors have undertaken here a systematic study on the structure-biodegradability relationship (SBR) of PAH in soil. Since it was expected that the majority of the PAH would be degraded cometabolically rather than in the substrate utilization mode, 1-phenyldecane was added as primary substrate in combination with all the PAH tested. In preliminary tests, 1-phenyldecane proved to be more effective in stimulating the biodegradation of 1,2-benzpyrene (benzo(a)pyrene) than either n-hexadecane, naphthoic acid or sewage sludge. The presence of an additional hydrocarbon substrate made this SBR study also more relevant to our previous work on the fate of PAH during the disposal of oily sludges by land treatment.
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