Bioremediation for hazardous liquid industrial waste at evaporation pit, Wafra south of Kuwait

• Published in: Maǧallaẗ al-abḥath al-handasiyyaẗ 2015-06, Vol.3 (2), Article 19
• Main Authors: Al- Sowaidan, Sharifah M., Al- Sarawi, Mohammed A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Engineering
• ISSN: 2307-1877; 2307-1885
• DOI: 10.7603/s40632-015-0019-2

Bioremediation of oily sludge contamination was conducted at the Wafra/Mina Abdullah site (Kilo 14) in southern Kuwait. The waste contents originally showed high levels of trace metals and other toxic chemicals. High levels of organic parameters were indicated by analyses of chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total organic carbon, and total petroleum hydrocarbons. Methods used in bioremediation included in-situ and ex-situ approaches such as: landfarming, bioventing, bioaugmentation, biosparging, and composting (biopiling). After one year of landfarming treatment, eight heavy metals showed overall reduction of 81%. Of the organic compounds monitored, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total petroleum hydrocarbons, and total organic carbon showed one-year reductions of 71.1%, 89.47%, 94.17%, and 95.36%, respectively. In summary, bioremediation was shown to be very cost effective method in this research, it is highly recommended to be implemented in heavy oily sludge area.