Bioremediation of oil-contaminated desert soil: The Kuwaiti experience

The remediation of the soil contaminated during the invasion of Kuwait is currently being considered. Three different bioremediation approaches were used: landfarming, windrow composting piles, and static bioventing piles. Up to 82.5 and 90.5% reduction in the total petroleum hydrocarbons and total alkanes, respectively, were removed within a 12-month period, depending on the bioremediation method used. Excellent results were produced by the bioventing soil pile method, despite the low operation and maintenance cost of this particular method, in comparison with the other two methods. In general, the results showed that bioremediation is effective in the remediation of oil contamination. This paper summarizes the results obtained from the field demonstration and discusses the prospective of using biological methods for large-scale remediation of the oil-contaminated soil in Kuwait. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.