• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.45-53
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of initial concentration and nutrients in treatment of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soils. The reactor used in this study was slurry-phase bioreactor of in-vessel type. Performance results on treatment of diesel fuel contaminated soils and micorbial growth were generated at the bench-scale level. The fate of TPH(Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon) and the microbial growth were evaluated in combination with biodegradation rate. Effect of initial loading levels of 50,000 and 100,000mg TPH/kg soil was studied. Performance results with two reactors were showed at the total TPH removal rate of 90.5% and 90.8%, respectively. However, the reactor with the initial concentration of 50,000mg TPH/kg soil showed higher biological TPH removal efficiency except for removal by volatilization than the other Although the different amount of nutrients was applied in two reactors, there was no remarkable difference in microbial growth rate. However, considerable factor in this results was that applied different initial concentration to two reactors. Although initial concentration was two times higher than it applied to the reactor without addition of nutrients, in total and biological TPH removal rate the reactor with addition of nutrients showed a higher than the other.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.69-72
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• 2015

This study investigated the effects of oil dose and soil texture on the analysis results for total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) in artificially oil-contaminated soils. The same amount of diesel was mixed with soils having different soil texture, and soil TPH concentrations were then analyzed for comparison. Presence of clay in the soil showed lower soil TPH analysis results than that of sand only. As the clay content was increased in the soil, the lower soil TPH concentration was obtained by incompleteness of solvent extraction. As the organic matter content in soil was increased from 5.2% to 10% (weight basis), a higher concentration of TPH was obtained by TPH analysis. However, at a higher organic content in the soil, 18%, resulted in a lower TPH concentration than those of 5.2% and 10%. Gasoline dose to the soil resulted in a significantly low TPH concentration due to the volatilization of gasoline while soil mixing and analysis. This study results would provide fundamental information either to the expectation of TPH concentration in artificially oil-contaminated soil or to estimation of oil release in the real oil-contaminated site.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2019

Clean soil environment is of crucial importance to sustain lives of ecosystem and humans. With rapid industrialization, there has been a great increase of soil contamination by accidental releases of petroleum products. In general, soil remediation is an expensive and time-consuming process as compared to cleanup of water and air. Moreover, determining the source and responsible parties of soil pollution often turns into legal conflicts and that further delay the cleanup process of contaminated sites. In practice, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) analysis has been employed to determine the petroleum species and to track down the responsible polluters. However, this approach often suffers from differentiating similar TPH species. In this study, we analyzed TPH chromatogram patterns of 24 domestic petroleum products in specific carbon ranges (${\sim}C_{10}$, $C_{10}-C_{12}$, $C_{12}-C_{36}$, and $C_{36}{\sim}$) and the fractional changes of THP ratio in the mixture products of gasoline, kerosene and diesel. The proposed TPH analysis method in this study could serve as a useful tool to better analyze the petroleum species in soils contaminated with complex oil mixtures, and ultimately be used to identify the polluters of soil.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.366-370
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• 1992

Sediment samples were collected from the stations 0101-0921 located between N $32^{\circ}$30'~$34^{\circ}$30' and E $123^{\circ}$30'-$128^{\circ}$30' during July 31-August lO. 1988. The distributions of total heterotrophic bacteria, freshwater bacteria and hydrocarbon degrading bacteria were studied. Each bacterial distribution was in the range of $3{\times}10^{5}~9.2{\times}10^{6}CFU/cm^{3}$sediment, $3{\times}10^{3}~2.1{\times}10^{6}CFU/cm^{3}$ sediment and $2{\times}10^{4}~6.2{\times}10^{6}CFU/cm^{3}$ sediment. respectively. The percent of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria against total heterotrophic bacteria was 0.7-73,2 % which was much higher than other marine sediments reported. These values were statistically analyzed with the percent of freshwater bacteria against total heterotrophic bacteria. These two parameters were well correlated with the correlation coefficient r= 0.60058 (n=34) and P=0.OOO2. This means that the distributions of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria and freshwater bacteria in the research area were affected together by the fresh water discharge into the sea environment. Therefore it can be concluded that the distribution of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the sediment of South Sea was affected by petroleum hydrocarbon input from terrestrial region through rivers.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.54-72
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• 2018

This study reviewed standard operation procedures for fractionation and analytical methods of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in north america and european countries to aid proper establishment of risk assessment protocols associated with TPH exposure in Korea. In current, the TPH fraction methods established by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon Criteria Working Group (TPHCWG) are most frequently employed worldwide. Both methods were developed on the basis of direct exposure of TPH from soil, although the method by TPHCWG also took into account the mobility of TPH. Volatile and extractable fractions of petroleum hydrocarbons were analyzed either separately or together. TPH fractionation methods were evaluated based on conservative toxicity values considering the uncertainty of risk assessment in light of current standard protocol for analyzing soil contaminants in Korea, and it was concluded that the method developed by MassDEP is more appropriate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.187-188
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• 2005

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1672-1678
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• 2009

We studied the effects of aged total petroleum hydrocarbons (aged TPH) on the survival of allochthonous diesel-degrading Rhodococcus sp. strain YS-7 in both laboratory and field investigations. The aged TPH extracted from a crude-oil-contaminated site were fractionized by thin-layer chromatography/flame ionization detection (TLC/FID). The three fractions identified were saturated aliphatic (SA), aromatic hydrocarbon (AH), and asphaltene-resin (AR). The ratio and composition of the separated fractions in the aged TPH were quite different from the crude-oil fractions. In the aged TPH, the SA and AH fractions were reduced and the AR fraction was dramatically increased compared with crude oil. The SA and AH fractions (2 mg/l each) of the aged TPH inhibited the growth of strain YS-7. Unexpectedly, the AR fraction had no effect on the survival of strain YS-7. However, crude oil (1,000 mg/l) did not inhibit the growth of strain YS-7. When strain YS-7 was inoculated into an aged crude-oil-contaminated field and its presence was monitored by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), we discovered that it had disappeared on 36 days after the inoculation. For the first time, this study has demonstrated that the SA and AH fractions in aged TPH are more toxic to an allochthonous diesel-degrading strain than the AR fraction.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.651-657
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• 2009

Shifts in the activity and diversity of microbes involved in aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon degradation in contaminated soil were investigated. Subsurface soil was collected from a gas station that had been abandoned since 1995 owing to ground subsidence. The total petroleum hydrocarbon content of the sample was approximately 2,100 mg/kg, and that of the soil below a gas pump was over 23,000 mg/kg. Enrichment cultures were grown in mineral medium that contained hexadecane (H) or naphthalene (N) at a concentration of 200 mg/l. In the Henrichment culture, a real-time PCR assay revealed that the 16S rRNA gene copy number increased from $1.2{\times}10^5$to $8.6{\times}10^6$with no lag phase, representing an approximately 70-fold increase. In the N-enrichment culture, the 16S rRNA copy number increased about 13-fold after 48 h, from $6.3{\times}10^4$to $8.3{\times}10^5$. Microbial communities in the enrichment cultures were studied by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and by analysis of 16S rRNA gene libraries. Before the addition of hydrocarbons, the gas station soil contained primarily Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria. During growth in the H-enrichment culture, the contribution of Bacteriodetes to the microbial community increased significantly. On the other hand, during N-enrichment, the Betaproteobacteria population increased conspicuously. These results suggest that specific phylotypes of bacteria were associated with the degradation of each hydrocarbon.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.104-114
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• 2021

Petroleum-contaminated soil is considered among the most important potential anthropogenic atmospheric methane sources. Additionally, various rhizoremediation factors can affect methane emissions by altering soil ecosystem carbon cycles. Nonetheless, greenhouse gas emissions from soil have not been given due importance as a potentially relevant parameter in rhizoremediation techniques. Therefore, in this study we sought to investigate the effects of different plant and soil amendments on both remediation efficiencies and methane emission characteristics in diesel-contaminated soil. An indoor pot experiment consisting of three plant treatments (control, maize, tall fescue) and two soil amendments (chemical nutrient, compost) was performed for 95 days. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal efficiency, dehydrogenase activity, and alkB (i.e., an alkane compound-degrading enzyme) gene abundance were the highest in the tall fescue and maize soil system amended with compost. Compost addition enhanced both the overall remediation efficiencies, as well as pmoA (i.e., a methane-oxidizing enzyme) gene abundance in soils. Moreover, the potential methane emission of diesel-contaminated soil was relatively low when maize was introduced to the soil system. After microbial community analysis, various TPH-degrading microorganisms (Nocardioides, Marinobacter, Immitisolibacter, Acinetobacter, Kocuria, Mycobacterium, Pseudomonas, Alcanivorax) and methane-oxidizing microorganisms (Methylocapsa, Methylosarcina) were observed in the rhizosphere soil. The effects of major rhizoremediation factors on soil remediation efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions discussed herein are expected to contribute to the development of sustainable biological remediation technologies in response to global climate change.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.spc
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• pp.51-63
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• 2022

In this study, the TPH(Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon) contamination and microbial ecological characteristics in petroleum-contaminated site were investigated through the correlation among the vertical TPH contamination distribution of the site, the geochemical characteristics, and the indigenous microbial ecology. The high TPH concentration showed in the vicinity of 3~4 m or less which is thought to be affected by vertical movement due to the impervious clay layer. In addition, the TPH concentration was found to have a positive correlation with Fe²⁺, TOC concentration, and the number of petroleum-degrading bacteria, and a negative correlation with the microbial community diversity. The microbial community according to the vertical distribution of TPH showed that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes at the phylum level were dominant in this study area as a whole, and they competed with each other. In particular, it was confirmed that the difference in the microbial community was different due to the difference in the degree of vertical TPH contamination. In addition, the genera Acidovorax, Leptolinea, Rugoshibacter, and Smithella appeared dominant in the samples in which TPH was detected, which is considered to be the microorganisms involved in the degradation of TPH in this study area. It is expected that this study can be used as an important data to understand the contamination characteristics and biogeochemical and microbial characteristics of these TPH-contaminated sites.