Innovative zeolite-assisted bioremediation strategy for cold-climate soils impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons

Petroleum contamination in Canada is a major environmental concern. However, remediating petroleum hydrocarbon-impacted soil environments in cold climates, including northern sites, is very challenging and often prohibitively expensive, mainly due to low temperatures (short summer) and remoteness. Bioremediation is the use of microbial populations for degrading and detoxify contaminants and has been considered a cost-effective remediation technology for petroleum-contaminated cold-climate soils due to the common presence of cold-adapted indigenous hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria. Yet, bioremediation for cold regions has been implemented with a heavy focus on short summer treatment periods. Recently, Dr. Wonjae Changs Lab at the University of Saskatchewan has begun developing an environmentally friendly, zeolite-assisted bioremediation strategy specialized for petroleum-impacted soils at cold sites, which will potentially extend bioremediation periods to non-summer months in cold regions of Canada. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Won Jae Chang

Student:

Hwanhwi Lee

Partner:

ZMM Canada Minerals Corp

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Program: