Comparative Study of Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons in Soils under Nipa Palm (Nypa fruticans Wurmb) Treatment

Chukwuemeka Peter Ukpaka; Loveday Nathaniel Pepple

Abstract

This study evaluated the potential of Nipa palm (Nypa fruticans) powder as an alternative amendment for remediation of crude oil polluted loamy and sandy soils. Further, the study investigated the bioremediation process using the first-order degradation rate and quadratic models. From the analysis, there were changes in the physicochemical properties of the soils under the Nipa palm powder amendment during the remediation. Also, TPH reduction in the amended soil samples was higher than those of the control samples at all times, while the increase in treatment weight also increases the percentage of TPH removed with time. The low percentage removal of TPH from the control sample shows that Nipa palm powder is effective for the treatment of crude oil-polluted soil. On the model analysis, the quadratic model predicted the concentration of TPH better than the first-order degradation rate kinetics, implying that the rate of TPH degradation can equally be studied using the quadratic model.

Abstract

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