Treatment of contaminated sediments by bio-slurry reactors: Study on the effect of erythromycin antibiotic

Abstract

The biological treatment with bio-slurry reactors has been effectively considered as a remediation technology for the removal of organic pollutants from soils or sediments, characterized mainly by sandy and clayey fractions. In this context, the treatment of marine sediments contaminated by hydrocarbons, through a remediation technique, represent a topic of particular interest for the scientific community. In this work, bioslurry technology has been studied for the treatment of marine contaminated sediments with a Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) content of 888.57 mg kg-1. The experimental campaign was divided into three phases, for a period of about 75 days. TPH removal efficiency was evaluated in two reactors, operating in parallel and in batch mode. In the first phase, reactors had the same characteristics and operating conditions while, in the second phase, the erythromycin antibiotic was added into one of the two reactors. Surprisingly, the addition of erythromycin improved the TPH removal efficiencies and reduced treatment times. Finally, the third phase was characterized by the substitution of the liquid phase, present in the reactors, with saline water, in order to deepen the study on the removal and transfer mechanisms typical of the bio-slurry systems.