Development of biological arsenic removal from contaminated soil

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Biological gasification of arsenic can be a mechanism of arsenic remediation from solids including soil. his study confirmed biological methylation (gasification) of arsenic by microorganism present in soil of contaminated site under anaerobic batch culture condition. Production of considerable amount of less toxic monomethylarsine was observed from the batch culture. This observation established the platform of using the process of biological gasification of arsenic for soil clean up. Soil column tests were further conducted to observe the feasibility of practical application of this process for bioremediation of arsenic. Similar to batch test, arsenic gasification was observed in soil column with monomethylarsine as the main gaseous species. The observed rate of arsenic gasification was low in soil column test. The rate of gasification can be bioaugmented by adding some other anaerobic cow dung based microbes, which were grown in reactors and acclimated to arsenic previously. It was observed that gasification rate of arsenic was rapidly increased after augmentation up to 8 times. The fate of arsenic in the environment is not known yet. The application arsenic bioremediation can be introduced after investigation of the fate of volatile arsenic in the environment.