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Bioremediation of Phthalates

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Fast and Economical Phthalate Contamination Removal

Bioremediation of phthalates can reduce risks to human health and the environment.  Phthalates are a  a family of common industrial chemicals used in plastics and other consume products.  Phthalates can damage the liver, kidneys, lungs and reproductive system.  Petrox microbes can remove these contaminants from water or soil to reduce potential exposure to these risks.

Petrox bioremediation of phthalates has been demonstrated in field and laboratory studies to remove phthalates from soil and ground water.  Field application of Petrox bioremediation reduced bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (BEP) concentrations from 650 ppm to 397  ppm in soil and 300 to 39 ppb in ground water at a site in Rochester, New York.  At the same site di-n-octylphthalate (DOP) in soil was reduced from 7.5 to 1.9 ppm. Click here to view the case study.

Oil-Contaminated Water Treatment

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Sustainable Bioremediation of Industrial Wastewater

CL Solutions provides a special consortium of microbes for oil-contaminated water treatment.   Under various conditions, the oil removal rate was as much as 1,300 mg/L/day.  In some situations the remediation goal is simply to remove the visible sheen or separate-phase oil.  With aeration, CL Solutions microbes were able to remove the visible oil layer and reduce the TPH concentration from 29% to less than 1% in 30 days at a waste oil lagoon. For more information and other case studies click here.

A special consortium of microbes removed the visible oil layer from this wastewater.

Oil-Water Separator Discharge Improvement

Similar to waste water treatment in lagoons, Petrox is used to improve the performance of industrial and commercial oil-water separators by degrading dissolved-phase oil.  The treatment goal is to reduce the TPH concentration to below discharge limits to avoid fines, surcharges and potential discontinuation of service.  The Petrox organisms may be introduced into the collection and treatment system at any point,  but are usually added to the collection or equalization sump for longer contact time.  In most cases, the dissolved phase total petroleum hydrocarbons  (TPH) is reduced by 50% to 90% in a manner of days.

For example, at a large city municipal Petrox reduced the TPH discharge from 25.9 to 7.40 mg/L in three days.  At smaller retail oil-change centers the reduction was from 278 mg/L TPH to 14.1 mg/L TPH  in 21 days.  The biological treatment is maintained by adding a gallon of Petrox to the sump weekly.

The cost for maintaining discharge compliance at these applications is as little as $250 per month.

Chromium-Contaminated Ground Water Bioremediation

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A bench-scale study demonstrated the viability of bioremediation of chromium contaminated ground water. The key factor to successful bioremediation was the selection of chromium-tolerant microbes. Actual contaminated ground water samples for the test. The ground water contained total chromium of 280 mg/L, with 270 mg/L hexavalent chromium.

The original sample was split into four bottles, with one preserved as a standard. Three split samples were treated with different blends of microbes. All three of the treated samples showed a reduction in the total dissolved chromium and nearly complete conversion from hexavalent to trivalent chromium. The average total chromium concentration in the treated samples was 160 mg/L and the hexavalent chromium concentration was 0.017 mg/L in two of the three treated samples. The sediments were not isolated for testing due to the small volume of sediment in the sample bottles.

Vials Showing Chromium Bioremediation Results

The photograph shows the untreated chromium-contaminated water on the left. The three bottles to the right were treated with various microbial blends.