Overcoming operational challenges during electrokinetic bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils

该公司的工业合作伙伴DST咨询工程师公司（DST Consulting Engineers Inc.）正在寻找方法，以克服在使用电动技术进行脱水挖掘或通过生物修复清理污染土壤时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给细菌，以促进土壤中有机污染物的去除的过程。一般来说，由于电解水导致电渗透流动方向的pH值不稳定和/或不均匀，营养物质输送不良，往往会使该过程在一段时间后失效，并且由于依赖电网而导致能源成本高，因此该过程的成功程度有限，而电网在偏远地区可能无法使用。DST希望与西部大学土木与环境工程系的Ernest Yanful博士建立新的合作伙伴关系，通过NSERC Engage计划下的一个研究项目来解决这些挑战。

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.