Writing: Yolanda Reyes, Inspenet TV, Source: NCYT Amazings. October 30, 2021.
In Greenland there are around 30 abandoned military installations where diesel fuel, used to keep generators and other machinery running, may have spilled onto the ground.
A proven case of contamination of this type is that of an abandoned military airfield (base 9117, Mestersvig) on the coast of East Greenland. Forty tons of diesel contaminated the soil at that location. Therefore, the Danish defense and engineering company NIRAS started an experiment to optimize the conditions in which certain natural bacteria in the soil break down diesel compounds.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the Danish-Greenland Geological Survey Service (GEUS) continuously monitored bacterial populations and the biodegradation of diesel compounds. After five years, the researchers found that the bacteria had remediated up to 82% of the 5,000 tons of contaminated soil.
“Bacteria have been shown to be extremely effective at breaking down the vast majority of compounds in diesel fuel. So this natural method can be applied elsewhere in the Arctic, where it would otherwise be incredibly expensive to remove contaminated soil by plane or ship.” “, explains Professor Jan H. Christensen of the University of Copenhagen. Christensen has been commissioned to analyze the chemical footprints in the land contaminated with diesel.
The sanitation method is applied by distributing the contaminated soil in a thin layer, which is then ploughed, fertilized and oxygenated each year in order to optimize the conditions in which bacteria degrade hydrocarbons.
In the case of this military airfield, it has become clear that bacteria can easily degrade pollutant compounds in diesel fuel in the ground, despite the low temperatures in Greenland.
The researchers will return to Greenland this year to carry out further analyzes on the course of the experiment. They hope to find that bacteria have successfully degraded the remaining mass of diesel.
Source: NCYT Amazings.
Read more: https://inspenet.com/bacterias-para-limpiar-terrenos-contaminados-con-gasoleo/