Sarah Miles, PhD, Sandra Dworatzek (Ontario), and Ron Gestler (California) coauthored a chapter titled “Bioremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in the Subsurface” in the book, Advances in the Characterisation and Remediation of Sites Contaminated with Petroleum Hydrocarbons, published by Springer.

Sarah is a Senior Staff Scientist who specializes in the bioremediation and micoremediation of contaminated sites, particularly those affected by chlorinated hydrocarbons, petroleum hydrocarbons, oils sands, and mine tailings. While completing her PhD at the University of Alberta, Sarah worked extensively on oil sands tailings remediation projects, specifically on treatment of the naphthenic acid fractions within oil sands tailings water. There, her projects used microbial isolates, the native microbial community, and chemical oxidation multistep treatments to degrade this target organic fraction.

Ron is a Senior Scientist with 18 years of experience remediating large and complex sites. He has participated at every level in the design, implementation, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of remediation systems using technologies including phytoremediation, bioremediation, and in situ chemical reduction and oxidation. He has implemented and operated large-scale, multiyear remediation programs at sites in the United States and Canada to address several environmental pollutants.

Sandra is a Principal Scientist at SiREM with more than 25 years of experience in bioremediation of chlorinated solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, emerging contaminants and other recalcitrant compounds. She has specific technical experience in the design of laboratory treatability studies, the scale up of growth of aerobic and anaerobic microbial cultures for bioaugmentation laboratory and field pilot tests, and evaluation of aerobic and anaerobic bioremediation, zero valent iron and chemical oxidation technologies in the laboratory. She currently provides senior technical oversight of laboratory treatability studies and the development and scaleup of new bioaugmentation cultures, including novel cultures for BTEX compounds under anaerobic conditions and aerobic 1,4-dioxane bioremediation. Sandra currently is the industry lead on a Genome Canada funded project for the commercialization of anaerobic BTEX degrading cultures.

This book is part of the book series, Environmental Contamination Remediation and Management, from SpringerLink, a group of book series published under Springer.

About the Book:

Advances in the Characterisation and Remediation of Sites Contaminated with Petroleum Hydrocarbons synthesizes important advances in the assessment and management of soil and groundwater systems contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, especially in the form of light nonaqueous-phase liquids (LNAPLs). LNAPL characterization and remediation is challenging due to the multi-phase, multi-component nature of the problem and the various physical, chemical, and biological processes involved in a dynamic and heterogeneous hydrogeological setting. This book focuses on the current state of practice of LNAPL characterization and remediation, and it seeks to provide information and a framework that would allow some of these complexities to be better addressed by contaminated land practitioners, researchers, and regulators.

Chapter Abstract:

Due to human activity and, to a lesser extent, natural processes, petroleum hydrocarbons continue to pollute the environment. These contaminants of concern can be found globally, and their remediation is key to restoring affected sites to a safe and functional status. Conventional treatment of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons relies heavily on remediation approaches that are often financially prohibitive or may be technically impractical and approaches that sometimes produce undesirable by-products. Using microbes that occur in nature (if not always at the site), can be a viable treatment with distinct advantages. Understanding the environment, contaminants, and natural biological processes occurring are key aspects for effective application of remediation techniques that rely on biological processes. Whether by stimulating the native microbial community, or, secondarily, by augmenting the native community with known degrader populations to degrade the target compounds, bioremediation is a practical, effective, and sustainable natural solution to a wide array of contamination worldwide. This chapter explores approaches to bioremediation of both soil and groundwater contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons, describing how the approaches work and the benefits and challenges associated with them. It focuses on the use of aerobic and anaerobic microbial bioremediation, phytoremediation, and micoremediation to address petroleum hydrocarbons.

More Information:

Learn more about the chapter: Bioremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in the Subsurface
Learn more about the Book: Advances in the Characterisation and Remediation of Sites Contaminated with Petroleum Hydrocarbons
For a consultation regarding bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons, contact Sarah at SMiles@Geosyntec.com or Ron at RGestler@Geosyntec.com.
Learn more about Sarah: Sarah Miles | LinkedIn
Learn more about Ron:Ron Gestler