• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.484-494
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• 2019

This paper presents a preliminary investigation of the optimum nutrients combination required for bioremediation of spent-engine oil contaminated soil using Box-Behnken-Design. Three levels of cow-manure, poultry-manure and inorganic nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer were used as independent biostimulants variables; while reduction in total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and total soil porosity (TSP) response as dependent variables were monitored under 6-week incubation. Ex-situ data generated in assessing the degree of biodegradation in the soil were used to develop second-order quadratic regression models for both TPH and TSP. The two models were found to be highly significant and good predictors of the response fate of TPH-removal and TSP-improvement, as indicated by their coefficients of determination: $R^2=0.9982$ and $R^2=1.000$ at $p{\leq}0.05$, respectively. Validation of the models showed that there was no significant difference between the predicted and observed values of TPH-removal and TSP-improvement. Using numerical technique, the optimum values of the biostimulants required to achieve a predicted maximum TPH-removal and TSP-improvement of 67.20 and 53.42%-dry-weight per kg of the contaminated soil were as follows: cow-manure - 125.0 g, poultry-manure - 100.0 g and NPK-fertilizer - 10.5 g. The observed values at this optimum point were 66.92 and 52.65%-dry-weight as TPH-removal and TSP-improvement, respectively.