O. I. Hope1, E. E. Ehirim2, Maurice. Ekwulo3, &
John M. Mbaba4
Comparative Study of Nano-Particles of Magnesium Oxide and Cow Dung for Hydrocarbon Polluted Soil Remediation
Abstract
A comparative study of Nano particles of Magnesium Oxide and Cow dung for the remediation of hydrocarbon polluted soil was carried out in this research. The cow dung and loamy soil sample were obtained within Agricultural farm in River State University and the Magnesium Oxide particles were produced in Chemical Engineering laboratory, River State University. 300g of Loamy soil was weighed into 14 rectors. Out of 14 samples, 12 samples containing 300g of loamy soil were polluted with 100ml crude, while the remaining 2 served as control unpolluted soil. The 12 polluted sample were stirred for uniform mixing, 50ml of distill-water were added and stirred then left for 3 days. After 3 days, the samples were taken to the lab to analyze the following parameters; TPH, Bacterial, pH, density, moisture content and particle size. 3 days later the Nano-particles of Magnesium Oxide of masses of 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g, 25g and 30g were introduced into 6 separate reactors and also Cow-dung of masses 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g, 25g and 30g were introduced into 6 separate reactors, 2 samples of polluted soil were set as control. Each of the 14 samples were taken to the lab to analysis the TPH, Bacteria and pH for 1st week – 6th week in 45 days. At the end of the analysis, the percentage degradation of TPH in the 30g loamy soil sample obtained by biological method (cow dung) was 97.49%, 98.12%, 98.25%, 98.78%, 99.11% and 99.66% respectively while chemical method (magnesium oxide) was 91.35%, 93.62%, 97.05%, 98.36%, 98.97% and 99.09% respectively. The first order degradation rate constant, obtained across the treatment options ranged from 0.0159– 0.01243day-1 for biological method and 0.00161 – 0.1601day-1 for chemical method. The half-life analysis showed that chemical method may take the longest time for TPH to degrade half its initial concentration, and biological method is fastest in the soil samples. Also, the first order rate kinetics performed better than Michaelis-Menten equation. The Chemical method (using Nano-particle) slightly outperformed the biological method (using Cow Dung). Finally, the study showed that Nano-particle can be utilized as an alternative bio-stimulant for crude oil remediation. At the end of the analysis, for 30g mass of loamy soil, the percentage reduction of the pollutant was 99.66% when cow dung was used and 99.09% reduction was realized when Magnesium Oxide was used.
KeyWords: Soil, Hydrocarbon, Remediation, Cow Dung, Magnesium Nano-Particle, Kinetic Models.
