Tourmaline combined with Phanerochaete chrysosporium to remediate agricultural soil contaminated with PAHs and OCPs

The potential application on tourmaline was explored. The combination of tourmaline and Phanerochaete chrysosporium was conducted to remediate the field soil from the Dagu Drainage River bank of Tianjin in China. The total PAH and OCP concentrations in the soil were 6.4 +/- 0.05 and 145.9 +/- 1.9 mg/kg, respectively. During the 60 day remediation program, the remediation degradation rates of all the 16 U.S. EPA priority PAHs and OCPs were 53.2 +/- 4.7% and 43.5 +/- 3.1%, respectively. The PAH and OCP removal rates were 31.9 +/- 2.9% and 26.4 +/- 1.8%, respectively, in soil with the addition of tourmaline, and the removal rates were 40.5 +/- 23% and 34.2 +/- 3.9%, respectively, in soil with the addition of P. chrysosporium. Thus, the combination of tourmaline and P. chrysosporium promoted the bioremediation rate of PAHs and OCPs in the soil, compared with the rates obtained using tourmaline or P. chrysosporium individually for the remediation of PAH and OCP degradation. In addition, tourmaline can promote the generation of soil hydrogen peroxidase and invertase enzyme, significantly increase the indigenous bacterial community and the number of PAH and OCP-degraders compared to those in the control, and reduce the soil humic acid content. Hence, the present study provides a potential alternative for the remediation of soils contaminated by PAHs and OCPs. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.