• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2019

Clean soil environment is of crucial importance to sustain lives of ecosystem and humans. With rapid industrialization, there has been a great increase of soil contamination by accidental releases of petroleum products. In general, soil remediation is an expensive and time-consuming process as compared to cleanup of water and air. Moreover, determining the source and responsible parties of soil pollution often turns into legal conflicts and that further delay the cleanup process of contaminated sites. In practice, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) analysis has been employed to determine the petroleum species and to track down the responsible polluters. However, this approach often suffers from differentiating similar TPH species. In this study, we analyzed TPH chromatogram patterns of 24 domestic petroleum products in specific carbon ranges (${\sim}C_{10}$, $C_{10}-C_{12}$, $C_{12}-C_{36}$, and $C_{36}{\sim}$) and the fractional changes of THP ratio in the mixture products of gasoline, kerosene and diesel. The proposed TPH analysis method in this study could serve as a useful tool to better analyze the petroleum species in soils contaminated with complex oil mixtures, and ultimately be used to identify the polluters of soil.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.28-34
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• 2005

The aim of this article is to assess the application characteristics of the site by remediating oil-contaminated area using DSB (Deep-site Biopile) system. In the contaminated area, the soil was composed of penetrable sand and the leaked oil was spread widely (total 7,201 cubic meters) through 2.5 meter deep underground water flow. DSB system was operated for 30 minutes intervals for 24 hours in a day (30 minutes opεration and 30 minutes stop). To check contamination level change in the contaminated area after DSB system was operated, samples were taken. The result from the site shows that BTEX/TPH contamination level was dropped 50% after 30-day operation of DSB system, and that contamination level was dropped below contamination level check standard after 165 days and the remediation was completed. Unlike traditional biological remediation methods DSB system could efficiently process soil and water which were contaminated by high levels of oil compounds.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.103-107
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• 2010

Oil degradation agent was developed with organic sludge and modified peat moss (MPM) to recover oil contaminated soil. Waste sludge discharged from wastewater treatment plant of chemical plant in Ulsan National Industrial Park was used as organic sludge, and MPM was purchased. Organic sludge was adequate to use as growth medium for microorganism, the surface of MPM had porous structure which could enhance the cultivation condition of oil degradation microorganisms. Water contents and TPH variation with time were observed to investigate the degradation capacity of developed degradation agent. Water contents were rapidly decreased with higher contents of MPM, however, in case of TPH, high MPM content decreased the degradation capacity. Therefore, it was recommended that the content of MPM was controlled to below 10% in degradation agent as mixing organic sludge with MPM.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.102-107
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• 2003

With the enrichment culture technique, bacterial strains which degrade diesel oil were isolated from soil contaminated with diesel oil. One of the isolates named GENECO 1 showed the highest activity for emulsification of diesel oil as well as the highest growth rate. This strain, GENECO 1, was identified as a Pseudomonas sp. based on its biochemical, physiological characteristics and 16S rDNA sequences. The optimal cultural conditions for cell growth and oil emulsifying activity of its culture were as follow; $30^{\circ}C$ for temperature, 7.0 for pH. Diesel oil degradation was analysed by the gas chromatography. More than 95% of 1% treated diesel oil were converted into a form no longer extractable by mixed organic solvents after 96 hours incubation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.491-500
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• 2015

Batch experiments were performed to determine the feasibility of the surfactant-enhanced soil washing process at various washing conditions for the Kuwait soil seriously contaminated with the crude oil. The soil was sampled at a dried oil pond in Kuwait and its average TPH concentration was 223,754 mg/kg, which was too high to apply the conventional remediation process. Nine commercialized non-ionic surfactants were used for the batch experiment to measure the surfactant solubility for the crude oil because it was reported that they have worked for the soil remediation. Among them, three surfactants having high crude oil solubility were used for the soil washing experiment. From the result of batch experiment, 5% TritonX-100 washing solution showed the highest TPH removal efficiency (67%) for the crude oil contaminated soil. However, because the residual TPH concentration in the washed soil was still higher than the clean-up level in Kuwait (10,000 mg/kg), the repeated soil washing was performed. After five washings with 2% surfactant solution, the cumulative TPH removal efficiency was higher than 96% and the residual TPH concentration in the soil went down below the clean-up level. To measure the desorption capacity of TritonX-100 remained in the soil after the soil washing, the silica beads and the soil were washed five times with 2% TritonX-100 surfactant solution and then they were washed again with distilled water to detach the surfactant adsorbed on beads or soil. After five washings with surfactant solution, 7.8% and 19.6% of the surfactant was adsorbed on beads and soil, respectively. When additionally washed with distilled water, most of the residual surfactant were detached from beads and only 4.3% of surfactant was remained in soil. From the results, it was investigated that the surfactant-enhanced soil washing process with TritonX-100, Tergitol S-15-7, and Tergitol S-15-9 has a great capability for the remediation of the Kuwait soil seriously contaminated by crude oil (more than 220,000 mg/kg).

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.215-232
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• 2020

Crude oils are essential source of energy. It is majorly found in geographical locations beneath the earth's surface and crude oil is the main factor for the economic developments in the world. Natural crude oil contains unrefined petroleum composed of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and it contains other organic materials like aromatic compounds, sulphur compounds, and many other organic compounds. These hydrocarbons are rapidly getting degraded by biosurfactant producing microorganisms. The present study deals with the isolation, purification, and characterization of biosurfactant producing microorganism from oil-contaminated soil. The ability of the microorganism producing biosurfactant was investigated by well diffusion method, drop collapse test, emulsification test, oil displacement activity, and blue agar plate method. The isolate obtained from the oil contaminated soil was identified as Bacillus subtilis. The identification was done by microscopic examinations and further characterization was done by Biochemical tests and 16SrRNA gene sequencing. Purification of the biosurfactant was performed by simple liquid-liquid extraction, and characterization of extracted biosurfactants was done using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The degradation of crude oil upon treatment with the partially purified biosurfactant was analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy and Gas-chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.30-35
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• 2008

In this study, the feasibility of soil washing, chemical oxidation and sonication was investigated to treat lubricantcontaminated railroad soil. Tergitol, a non-ionic surfactant, was used as a washing agent with or without iso-propyl acohol as a cosolvent. However, it was not effective to remove lubricant from soil even though tergitol was the most effective washing agent for diesel-contaminated soil. The cosolvent reduced the overall washing efficiency. Chemical oxidation removed 30% of lubricant from contaminated soil. Soil washing after chemical oxidation extracted additionally 16-17% of lubricant. Sonication enhanced-soil washing showed enhanced overall efficiency of soil washing. Lubricant-contaminated soil should be remediated by the other technology used for diesel-contaminated soil.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.795-799
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• 2008

We have studied bioremediation of effective microorganisms on crude oil spill in Taean, west-coast of Korea. Oil contaminated soil samples were collected on December 14, 2007, seven days after the Hebei Spirit oil-spilled accident. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was measured to evaluate the effectiveness of effective microorganisms (EM) which were composed with yeast, photosynthetic bacteria and lactic acid bacteria on oil degradation. TPH concentration before EM treatment was 323.8 mg/kg, whereas TPH concentrations on 2 days after EM treatment and that of control (without EM) was 102.1 mg/kg and 170.6 mg/kg, respectively. On six days after EM treatment TPH was 91.3 mg/kg and that of control was 127.7 mg/kg. Percentages of degraded crude oil were 47.3% without EM and 68.5% with EM, 60.6% without EM and 71.8% with EM on 2 and 6 days after EM treatment, respectively. These results clearly showed that the application of effective microorganisms toward oil-contaminated soil was quite useful to degrade crude oil spill. These results were derived from the effects of biostimulation of microbial media nutrients and bioaugmentation of effective microorganisms. If we carefully apply these effective microorganisms, it can be a useful bioremediation method to recover oil-contaminated marine ecosystems.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.557-575
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• 2020

Plasma blasting which is generated by high voltage arc discharge of electricity is applied to soil mass to improve permeability of soil and cleaning efficiency of oil contamination. A new high voltage generator was manufactured and three types of soil including silty sand, silty sand mixed with lime and silty sand mixed with cement were prepared. Small and large soil columns were produced using these types of soil and plasma blasting was performed within soil columns to investigate the variation of soil volume penetrated by fluid and permeability. Soil volume penetrated by fluid increased by 11~71% when plasma blasting was applied in soil. Although plasma blasting with low electricity voltage induced horizontal fracture and fluid penetrated along this weak plane, plasma blasting with high voltage induced spherical penetration of fluid. Plasma blasting increased the permeability of soil. Permeabilty of soils mixed with lime and cement increased by 450~1,052% with plasma blasting. Permeability of soil increased as discharge voltage increased when plasma blasing was applied once. However, several blastings with the same discharge voltage increase or decrease permeability of soil. Oil contaminated soil was prepared by adding diesel into soil artificially and plasma blasting was performed in these oil contaminated soil. Cleaning efficiency increased by average of 393% for soil located nearby the blasting and by average of 239% for soil located far from the blasting. Cleaning efficiency did not show any correlation with discharge voltage. All these results indicated that plasma blasting might be used for in-situ cleaning of oil contaminated soil because plasma blasting increased permeability of soil and cleaning efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.02a
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• pp.14-28
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• 2001

As basic study for purpose bioremedation in oil-contaminated environment, Primarily, we isolated biosurfactant producer- strains utilized of oil-agar plate, and measured surface tension and emulsifying activity. We investigated in oil-contaminated soil and sea water. In this laboratory, Pseudomonas sp. EL-012S strain isolated from oil-contaminated soil was able to product novel biosurfactant under the optimal culture condition. Its condition was n-hexadecane 2.0%, NH$_4$NO$_3$0.4%, Na$_2$HPO$_4$0.6%, KH$_2$PO$_4$0.4%, MgSO$_4$.7$H_2O$ 0.02%, CaCl$_2$.2$H_2O$ 0.001%, FeSO.7$H_2O$ 0.001%, initial pH 7.0 and aeration at 3$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. This biosurfactant was produced in both late-exponential and early-stationary phase. The biosurfactant from Pseudomonas sp. EL-012S was composed of carbohydrate, lipid and protein. The purified-biosurfactant was examined two (biosurfactant type I, II) with the silica gel G60 column chromatography and the purified biosurfactant confirmed thin layer chromatography, high performed liquid chromatography and gas chromatography. The biosurfactant type I involved in carbohydrate-lipid-protein characteristics lowered surface tension of water to 27dyne/cm and interfacial tension 4.5dyne/cm aginst to n-hexadecane and the biosurfactant type B involved in carbohydrate lipid characteristics lowered surface tension of water to 30dyne/cm and interfacial tension 8dyne/cm against to n-hexadecane. Specially type I had the properties such as strong emulsifying activity, emulsion stability, pH-stability, thermo-stability, high cleaning activity and forming ability.