Plant biomass extracted eco-friendly natural surfactant enhanced bio-electrokinetic remediation of crude oil contaminated soil

Abstract

The current work investigates bioremediation (BIO) and electrokinetic (EK) remediation of crude oil hydrocarbons utilizing the biomass-electrokinetic (BIO-EK) approaches. The use of natural surfactants derived from plant biomass may improve remediation capacity by enhancing the solubility of organic pollutants. Sapindus mukorossi, a natural surfactant producer, was extracted from plant biomass in this study. The crude oil biodegradation efficiency was reported to be 98 %. In nature, FTIR confirms that plant biomass is lipopeptide. GCMS revealed that the crude oil (C7 - C23) was efficiently bio-degraded from lower to higher molecular weight. The application of natural surfactants in electokinetic remediation increased the plant biomass degradation of crude oil polluted soil by 98% compared to electrokinetic 55% in 2 days. Natural surfactant improves hydrocarbon solubilization and accelerates hydrocarbon electro migration to the anodic compartment, as confirmed by the presence of greater total organic content than the electrokinetic. This study proves that BIO-EK compared with a natural surfactant derived from plant biomass may be utilized to improve in situ bioremediation of crude oil polluted soils.