Overcoming operational challenges during electrokinetic bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils

这家工业合作伙伴，DST咨询工程师公司，正在寻找方法来克服在使用电动对挖掘进行脱水或通过生物修复清理受污染土壤的过程中经常遇到的操作挑战。电动生物修复是利用电流将营养物质输送到细菌以促进土壤中有机污染物的去除的过程。一般来说，该工艺的成功有限，因为电解水导致电渗流方向的pH值不稳定和/或不均匀，营养物质输送不佳，往往在一段时间后使该工艺无效，以及由于依赖电网电力而导致的高能源成本，这在偏远地区可能是不可用的。DST希望通过NSERC Engage计划下的一个研究项目，与西部大学土木工程与环境工程师系的欧内斯特·亚纳弗博士建立新的合作伙伴关系，以应对这些挑战。 这项研究的目标是研究(I)一种新的电极配置，通过在电动电池的阳极室和阴极室之间产生循环水流，在不添加化合物或增加运行成本的情况下，中和pH；(Ii)温度对电动生物修复的影响，并使用间歇电流来消除高温的不利影响；以及(Iii)使用太阳能作为电网电力的替代，为电动生物修复过程提供动力。DST咨询工程师公司将为该项目提供8400美元的实物捐助，并使用所产生的技术在施工期间对挖掘进行脱水，加固软弱的土壤，并修复石油污染的场地。通过该项目，西部大学将进一步发展一名博士生的环境工程和补救技能，从而为加拿大的社会经济发展做出贡献。

The industrial partner, DST Consulting Engineers Inc., is looking for ways to overcome operational challenges usually encountered during the use of electrokinetics to dewater excavations or clean up contaminated soil via bioremediation. Electrokinetic bioremediation is the process of using electrical current to deliver nutrients to bacteria to facilitate the removal of organic pollutants from soil. Generally, the process has been found to have limited success because of unstable and/or nonuniform pH in the electroosmotic flow direction due to the electrolysis of water, poor nutrients delivery that tend to render the process ineffective after some time, and high energy cost due to reliance on grid electricity, which may not be available in remote areas. DST would like to forge a new partnership with Dr. Ernest Yanful of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineers at Western University to address these challenges, via a research project under the NSERC Engage program. The goals of the research are to investigate (i) a new electrode configuration for neutralizing pH by creating circular water flow between the anode and cathode compartments of an electrokinetic cell, without the addition of chemical compounds or increase in operational cost; (ii) temperature effects on electrokinetic bioremediation and the use of intermittent current to eliminate the adverse effect of high temperature; and (iii) the use of solar energy as an alternative to grid electricity to power the electrokinetic bioremediation process. DST Consulting Engineers Inc. will make an in-kind contribution of $8,400 to the project and use the resulting technology to dewater excavations during construction, strengthen weak soils, and remediate petroleum contaminated sites. Through the project, Western University will further develop the environmental engineering and remediation skills of one Ph.D. student and thereby to Canada's socio-economic development.