This study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. Four bacterial strains were isolated from diesel contaminated soil samples. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 system, as Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Pentoae species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterobacter cloacae. The potential of biological surfactant production was tested using the Sigma 703D stand-alone tensiometer showed that these isolates are biological surfactant producers. The better results of the surface tension reduction test were obtained using the mixed bacterial culture which reduced the surface tension of the medium from 66mN/m to 33.89mN/m. For further evidence of the biodegradation effect of these isolates individually and as a mixed culture, which was supported by the use of Gas-Chromatography technology confirming the occurrence of biodegradation. The capability of mixed bacterial culture was examined to remediate the diesel contaminated soil in bio piles system. Two pilot scale bio piles (25 kg soil each) were constructed containing soils contaminated with approximately 2140 mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). Both systems were equipped with oxygen to provide aerobic conditions, incubated at ambient temperature and weekly sampling within 35 days (during summer season). Overall 75.71 % of the total petroleum hydrocarbons were removed from the amended soil and 33.18 % of the control soil at the end of study period. The study concluded that the ex-situ bioremediation (bio piles) is a good option for treating the soil contaminated with diesel as economical and environmentally friendly.
The presence of hydrocarbons in the soil is considered one of the main problems of pollution. In our current study, eight samples isolated from soil saturated with hydrocarbons were taken from different areas of Baghdad, Iraq. In this study, 5 isolates belonging to Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 99%, 4 isolates to Klebsiella pneumoniae by 98%, and 3 isolates to Enterobacter hormaechei by 97% were diagnosed in different ways. A molecular examination was also conducted by 16sRNA. We recorded P. aeruginosa, K. Pneumoniae and E. hormaechei as new local isolates in NCBI. In addition, a comparison was made between our isolates and the global isolates to determine the degree of convergence in the evolutionary line. The genes alkB and nahAc7 were diagno
... Show MoreSoil fertility is a crucial factor in measuring soil quality, it indicates the extent to which soil can support plant life. Soil fertility is measured by the amount of macro and micronutrients, pH, etc. Soil nutrients are depleted after each harvest and therefore must be added. To maintain soil nutrient levels, fertilizer is added to the soil. Adding fertilizer in the precise amount is a matter of great importance because excess or insufficient application can harm plant life and reduce productivity. The use of modern technology is a solution to this problem. Although automated techniques for sowing, weeding, crop harvesting, etc. have been proposed and implemented, none of the techniques are aimed to maintaining soil fertility. The study a
... Show MoreThis paper presents the results of experimental investigations to predict the bearing capacity of square footing on geogrid-reinforced loose sand by performing model tests. The effects of several parameters were studied in order to study the general behavior of improving the soil by using the geogrid. These parameters include the eccentricity value, depth of first layer of reinforcement, and vertical spacing of reinforcement layers. The results of the experimental work indicated that there was an optimum reinforcement embedment depth at which the bearing capacity was the highest when single-layer reinforcement was used. The increase of (z/B) (vertical spacing of reinforcement layer/width of footing) above 1.5 has no effect on the re
... Show MoreGypseous soils represented one of the most complex salty soils that faced the geotechnical engineers. Structures that built on gypsum soil will undergo unexpected distortions that will eventually contribute to catastrophic failure. The purpose of this article is to understand the durability of gypsum soil against wetting drying cycles after improvement with polyurethane polymer especially investigate the effect of the wetting-drying cycle on collapsibility. The soil was brought from Sawa lake in AL-Muthanna Governorate in Iraq, with gypsum content 65.5%, A set of Odometer tests were performed to determine the collapsibility potential (CP) for treated and untreated gypsum soil. The result shows that adding a different per
... Show MoreThe growing water demand has raised serious concerns about the future of irrigated agriculture in many parts all over the world, changing environmental conditions and shortage of water (especially in Iraq) have led to the need for a new system that efficiently manages the irrigation of crops. With the increasing population growing at a rapid pace, traditional agriculture will have a tough time meeting future food demands. Water availability and conservation are major concerns for farmers. The configuration of the smart irrigation system was designed based on data specific to the parameters concerning the characteristics of the plant and the properties of soil which are measured once i
Many studies and researchers have reported significant evidence that some physical properties of water can be changed as it passes through a magnetic field that can improve water use. This can have a promising potential for applications, especially in the fields of irrigation and drainage. In this research, magnetized water was used to leach salt-affected sandy loam soil. A test rig was designed and constructed to investigate the effects of magnetized water on leaching soil. The rig consists of a magnetization device that can provide variable intensity. Water was supplied from a constant head reservoir to the magnetization device then to the soils that were placed in plastic columns. Five different magnetic intensi
... Show MoreThe problem of soil contamination is increased recently due to increasing the industrial wastes such as petroleum hydrocarbon, organic solvents, and heavy metals as well as maximizing the use of agricultural fertilizers. During this period, wide development of data collection methods, using remote sensing techniques in the field of soil and environment applications appear and state the suitable technique for remediation. This study deals with the application of remote sensing techniques in geoenvironmental engineering through a field spectral reflectance measurements at nine spots of naturally hydrocarbons contaminated soil in Al-Daura Refinery Company site which is located to the south west of Baghdad using radiometer device to get stan
... Show MoreThe change in project cost, or cost growth, occurs from many factors, some of which are related to soil problem conditions that may occurs during construction and/or during site investigation period. This paper described a new soil improvement method with a minimum cost solution by using polymer fiber materials having a length of (3 cm) in both directions and (2.5 mm) in thickness, distributed in uniform medium dense .
sandy soil at different depths (B, 1.5B and 2B) below the footings. Three square footings has been used (5,7.5 and 10 cm) to carry the above investigation by using lever arm loading system design for such purposes.
These fibers were distributed from depth of (0.1B) below the footing base down to the investigated dep
Soil-structure frictional resistance is an important parameter in the design of many foundation systems. The soil-structure interface area is responsible for load transferring from the structure to the surrounding soil. The mobilized shaft resistance of axially loaded, long slender pile embedded in dense, dry sand is experimentally and numerically analyzed when subjected to pullout force. Experimental setup including an instrumented model pile while the finite element method is used as a numerical analysis tool. The hypoplasticity model is used to model the soil adjacent to and surrounding the pile by using ABAQUS FEA (6.17.1). The soil-structure interface behavior depends on many factors, but mainly on the interface soi
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