Soil Bioremediation

Bioremediation is an environmentally sound, and cost effective method, of treating hydrocarbon contaminated soils. This technology minimises the amount of soil to be disposed of to landfill.

There are basically two types of soil bioremediation: in and ex-situ. In-situ, as the name suggests, is the treatment of the soil in its location whilst ex-situ is to remove and treat it elsewhere.

Bioremediation is the treatment of contaminated soil using micro-organisms and accelerating the culture by use of chemicals as nutrients and the addition of oxygen producing aerobic conditions for the remediation.

The bioremediation process will degrade and detoxify the organic compounds to harmless products such as carbon dioxide and water.

This must be done in a confined and controlled environment.It is important to recognise contaminated soils may contain substances not suitable for bioremediation and that there may be a need to provide further alternative treatments to accomplish the remediation.

Bioremediation is considered to be a short-to-medium duration process dependant on concentrations.