Landfarming bioremediation was performed over 2 years on soil heavily
polluted with weathered oil and oil derivatives: 23200 mg kg-1 of mineral
oil, 35300 mg kg-1 total hydrocarbons, and 8.65 mg kg-1 of total PAHs.
During the experiment, mineral oil, total hydrocarbon and PAH concentrations
decreased by approximately 53%, 27% and 72%, respectively. A GC/MS-Scan was
used to identify the crude oil components that persist after bioremediation
treatment of contaminated soil and the metabolites generated during this
process. The data shows that in weathered-hydrocarbons contaminated soil,
the number of initially detected compounds after the bioremediation process
further decreased over a 2 year period, and at the same time several new
compounds were observed at the end of experiment. Higher persistence was
also shown for heavier n-alkanes and branched alkanes, which could be
detected over a longer period of time. The analysis highlights the
importance of n-alkanes, their substituted derivatives and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons as the most significant pollutants.