Biological cleanup of oil spills on sandy beaches by land farming techniques

Cleaning up the oil spills in coastal zones, especially sandy beaches, is more difficult than in oceanic areas. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using land farming techniques to deal with the sands contaminated by crude oil. Three buckets of sands mixed with crude oil were used in this study to simulate the oil contaminated sandy beach. Two different types of fertilizers (oleophilic and hydrophilic) were applied into two of the three buckets as the nutrient sources for the oil degradation bacteria, respectively, while the other one was added nothing but seawater to keep it moisture, which was used as a control for the tests. The chemical dispersant (CPC OD-10(TM)) was used to emulsify the crude oil in the sand bucket of applying hydrolophilic fertilizer. According to the experimental results, the buckets applied with both oleophilic fertilizer and hydrophilic fertilizers mixed with chemical dispersant were found performing equally well. The optimal biodegradation rate for crude oil weight was measured equal to 72.7% over a period of only five months.