Slurry Bioremediation

Kuliah 13
BIOREMEDIASI
SITH – ITB
2018
Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Definition

 Bioremediation processes have been classified in three broad categories,

according to place and soil handling/ conditioning: in situ, ad situ, and ex
situ. (Robles-González et al. 2008)

 Slurry bioreactors are one of the most important types of ad situ and ex situ
technique.

 Typically, the slurry contains from 10 to 30% solids by weight

Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB

Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Four parts of Slurry bioreactor
technology
1. Installations for polluted soil handling and conditioning,
2. The bioreactor battery itself,
3. installations for treated soil handling and disposal,
4. equipment for treatment of process by-streams

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Slurry Bioremediation Classification

Operation based:
 Batch process
 semi-continuous process
 Continuous process

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Slurry Bioremediation Classification

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Slurry Bioreactor

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Flow diagram of a typical slurry bioreactor installation.

Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB *Clarifier is optional.
Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Steps in the Processing of Slurry Bioreactor
STEP 1: Soil pretreatment

 The excavated soil is physically pre-treated to separate stones and rubble

  In some cases, it is also pre-washed to concentrate the contaminants into a smaller
volume of soil

 consists of crushing followed by screening.

 The coarser fractions of soils (pebbles and sands, 0.85 to 4 mm) are discarded
and sent to direct disposal

 fine fractions (clay and organic matter, < 0.85 mm) are retained and loaded
into bioreactors.
1. .

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Slurry Phase Bio-reactor

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 Steps in the Processing of Slurry Bioreactor
STEP 2: concentration of Solids
 An aqueous slurry is created by combining the contaminated soil, sediment, or sludge with
water and nutrients.
 Some processes pre-wash the soil to concentrate the contaminants.

 Fine fractions of soils are mixed with water or wastewater to form slurry with a
concentration in the range between 15 to 60% w/v,
 depending on characteristics of soil and degradation rates  laboratory or pilot scale studies

 Solids concentration determine

 the mixing power required,
 aeration efficiency in aerobic SB,
 the size of by-stream post-treatment installations

 Use decanted spent liquors from previous batch runs as water for making the slurries 
minimization approach
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Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Steps in the Processing of Slurry Bioreactor
STEP 3: Mixing  homogenous suspension

 Mixtures is then placed into a bio-reactor

 Types of mixing devices: mechanical and pneumatic

 Period: intermittent or continuous.

 Mixing intensity is a critical factor in SB design and performance

 to keep solid particles in suspension and microorganisms in contact with the soil
contaminants.
 provide slurry homogeneization,
 to help achieving a satisfactory aeration in aerobic SBs, and to increase several
mass transfer rates such as desorption of pollutants from soil, among others

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Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Control of environmental conditions in the operation
of slurry bioreactors

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 If necessary, an acid or alkali may be added to control pH.

 Microorganisms also may be added if a suitable population is not

present.

 Slurry-phase bioreactors may be classified as short- to medium-term

technologies.

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Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Dewatering

 Upon completion of the process, the slurry is dewatered and the treated
soil can be replaced to it's position. Only the contaminated fines &
collected wastewater require further treatment.

 Dewatering devices that may be used include clarifiers, pressure filters,

vacuum filters, sand drying beds, or centrifuges.

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Remediation of sites/actual site soils contaminated with
PAH in aerobic slurry bioreactors.

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Prepared By Sri Harjati Suhardi for Bioremediation Lecture SITH ITB
Utilization Of Electron Acceptors Other Than Oxygen
Anaerobic slurry bioreactors

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Use of surfactants and solvents to improve
availability of contaminants

(1) Advances on hysteresis characterization

 Hysteresis coefficient is used for determining the adsorption-desorption
behavior of pollutants on
 Hysteresis coefficient (CH) as the ratio of the slope (derivative) of the
adsorption curve and the slope of the desorption curve in a given point (Cj
, qj ) of interest. sediments and soils.
 Hysteresis is not important, CH ≅ 1, i.e., the adsorption is reversible,
 Hysteresis is important, then CH >1, i.e., the adsorption is irreversible

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 The availability enhancement factor

(AEF)
The AEF was defined as the ratio of the slope of the desorption curve of a given pollutant
with a surfactant or solvent treatment to the slope of the corresponding curve of the
reference treatment (usually desorption with distilled water)

 for determining the effectiveness of desorption treatments of pollutants from soils and
sediments.

 for the quantification of the effect of a given soil treatment (with surfactant, biosurfactant,
solvents) on the possible improvement of the pollutant desorption and availability for further
biodegradation or physicochemical removal

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 (2) Surfactants
 facilitate hydrophobic pollutant desorption from a solid matrix, and its dispersion in the
aqueous phase

 Main factors that determine surfactant success and capability are its chemical nature
and concentration as a multiple of critical micellar capacity (CMC).

 Biodegradable surfactants and biosurfactants may be the choice for increasing pollutant
availability while minimizing inhibitorial effects on SB microflora

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 Surfactants Classification
Classification based Typte Example
based on predominant anionic (SDS, LASA and SDOSS),
electric charge after
contact with water

cationic (benzyl trimethyl-

ammonium bromide

non ionic (Triton X-100; Brij 35; Tergitol

NP-10, Tween-80, etc.)

Based on its origin or Synthetic

production

biological surfactants rhamnolipids, glycolipids or

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(3) Solvents

 Solvents can also be used for increasing the availability and bioavailability
of low solubility-, hydrophobic pollutants in soil remediation

 Role of solvents
 help in attracting the molecules of contaminants adsorbed onto soil,
 transfer the contaminant into the solvent phase,
 to facilitate the exchange of contaminant between the solvent to the aqueous
phase for further biodegradation

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 Bioaugmentation

Pollutants Microorganisms Ref

aerobic degradation of A three-membered co-culture of Rutherford et al
PCBs strains of Pseudomonas sp and (2000)
Alcaligenes sp.
naphtalene Flavobacterium sp Wang and
Vipulanandar (2001)
PAHs Sphingomonas aromaticivorans Janikowski et al
(2002)
]Burkholderia cepacia 2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT Zhang et al (2000)
JS872, B. cepacia and
Hydrogenophaga palleronii

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Advances on characterization and monitoring of
microbial communities of slurry bioreactors

 Monitoring of microbial community

 microbial counting by total or selective plating, most probable number counting,
 bacterial staining followed by microscopic analysis

 Measuring microbial activity through respirometric or radiorespirometric analyses

 Modern molecular biology tools: qualitative and quantitative information on the microbial
community including the uncultivable fraction.
 The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and competitive PCR (cPCR)
 The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis

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 Developments on eco-toxicity assays aimed at
evaluating bioremediation efficiency of the process
 Significant complementary tool to assess the extent and success of bioremediation

 Test for Aqueous Extract of Soil:

 Microorganisms (Pseudomonas putida, Photobacterium phosphoreum),
 Primary consumers (micro crustaceans Daphnias);
 Secondary consumers (fish);
 Primary producers (algae).

 Test for whole soil:

 Plants (brassica rapa, avena sativa, lepidium sativum, etc),
 Seeds for assessing germination,
 Earth worms (eisenia fetida, eisenia andrei)

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 Process advantages,
i. Increased mass transfer rates and increased contact microorganisms/pollutant/nutrients;
ii. Increased rates of pollutant biodegradation compared to in situ bioremediation or to ad situ
solid phase biotreatment:
iii. Associated to (i) and (ii), significantly shorter treatment times can be achieved;
iv. Possibility of using different electron acceptors (O2, SO4 -2, CO2, NO3- )
v. Control and optimization of several environmental parameters such as temperature, pH, etc.
vi. Effective use of biostimulation and bioaugmentation;
vii. Increase pollutant desorption and availability through the addition of surfactants and
solvents

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Bioreactor configurations

 At full scale, low cost bioreactors may consist of large lined lagoons (24 m ×
15 m).
 Manufactured bioreactors can range 3 to 25 m diameter and 4.5 to 8 m
height, with capacities between 60 to 1000 m3

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Limitations/Disadvantages:

 Must excavate & transport the contaminated media (unless lagoon

implementation).
 Bio-reactor design can be difficult and expensive.
 Soil Conditioning is required
 Nonhomogeneous or clayey soils can create serious material handling problems.
 Dewatering soil fines after treatment can be expensive.
 An acceptable method for disposing/further treating waste-water is
required.
 bioreactor construction/operation that typically increase treatment costs
compared to most simple bioremediation techniques.

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Applicability:

Treats solid phases contaminated by non-

halogenated SVOCs and
VOCs, explosives, petroleum
hydrocarbons, petrochemicals, solvents,
some pesticides, wood preservatives &
other organic chemicals.

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The ability to add specially adapted

Applicability

 Sequential anaerobic/aerobic slurry-phase bioreactors are used to treat

PCBs, halogenated SVOCs, pesticides, and ordnance compounds found in
excavated soils or dredged sediments.

 Bioreactors are favored over in situ biological techniques for heterogenous

soils, low permeability soils, areas where underlying ground water would be
difficult to capture, or when faster treatment times are required

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Data Needs:

 To characterize
 the contamination,
 soil,
 site,
 to evaluate the biodegradation potential of the contaminants
 A preliminary treatability study should be conducted.

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Important contaminant characteristics

 their solubility and soil sorption coefficient;

 their volatility (e.g., vapor pressure);
 their chemical reactivity (e.g., tendency toward nonbiological reactions
such as hydrolysis, oxidation, and polymerization);
 their biodegradability.

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Cost:

 Treatment costs using slurry reactors range from $130 to $200 per cubic
metre ($100 to $150 per cubic yard).
 Costs ranging from $160 to $210 per cubic meter ($125 to $160 per cubic
yard)  the presence of volatile compounds.

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References

 http://learnbioremediation.weebly.com/slurry-phase-bio-reactor.html
 Federal Remediation Technology Roundtable (FRTR): Remediation Technology
Screening Matrix and Reference Guide, Version 4.0
https://frtr.gov/matrix2/top_page.html
 Ireri V Robles-González, Fabio Fava and Héctor M Poggi-Varaldo (2008). A review
on slurry bioreactors for bioremediation of soils and sediments. Microbial Cell
Factories 2008, 7:5 doi:10.1186/1475-2859-7-5

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