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ABSTRACT
Crude oil contamination poses a significant threat to soil ecosystems. This study investigated the potential of biochar made from corn cobs, for remediating soil contaminated with crude oil. The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of biochar in reducing residual hydrocarbon content (RHC) and heavy metal using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) as the optimization study. A laboratory experiment was conducted using soil (1kg) artificially contaminated with a different known concentration of crude oil. Different dosages of biochar were applied to the contaminated soil samples. The experiment monitored Residual hydrocarbon content and heavy metal over a given period to assess the biodegradation process. At the end of the stipulated time, samples were measured to get the %RHC and heavy metal present in them. The results were analysed using contour and 3D Plots comparing the effects of two input variables on both RHC and Heavy Metals. The lowest residual hydrocarbon concentration observed during the experiment was 987.14mg/kg at Run 3. The highest residual hydrocarbon concentration was 1549.59mg/kg at Run 2. Also, the highest residual heavy metal concentration was 0.00313mg/L at Run 3. The lowest concentration of heavy metal was 0.00123mg/L at Run 2. The input variables for Run 3 include 57.06ml crude oil content, 30g of biochar dosage, and a six-week remediation period while the input variables for Run 2 are 114.12ml crude oil content, 30g of biochar dosage, and a 2-week remediation period. Furthermore, the optimal conditions for bioremediation of crude oil-contaminated soil. The data obtained are 57.0602ml crude oil concentration, 38.7763g of biochar dosage, 5.98232 weeks, while the residual hydrocarbon content is 924.434ml and heavy metal present is 0.001509mg/L. A desirability of 1.000 indicates that optimization was fully achieved.
