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Decontamination
of Hydrocarbon Polluted Military Sites to Decrease Environmental Risks Low – Cost
Cyclodextrin Technology (SfP-973720) |
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Biological treatment of contaminated soil has become dominant due to low costs and environmental friendly characteristics. Nowadays the main goal of the research is to refine technologies targeting higher efficiency and lower cost.
One of the well known
bottle-necks for the biological removal of hydrocarbons from contaminated sites
is the low bioavailability of these contaminants to the biodegrading soil
microflora. One of the promising solutions may be adding cyclodextrins, which are biodegradable and non-toxic oligosacharides
capable of enhancing significantly the mobilisation of the pollutant from the
soil to the soil water phase, where the pollutant-biodegrading microflora is
typically located.
The goal of the project
is to create the scientific background of the application of cyclodextrins,
namely the randomly methylated b-cyclodextrin (RAMEB) for
intensification of bioremediation and to develop a cost-effective new biotechnology for
remediation of soils contaminated with poorly biodegradable hydrocarbons,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The effect of RAMEB has been studied using a gradual scaling up from small
scale laboratory experiments, through increasing scale of technological
experiments till ex situ and in situ field demonstration.