Efficiency of cow horn-powder in the remediation of crude oil impacted soil

Abstract

Efficiency of Cow-Horn Powder in the Remediation of Crude Oil Impacted Soil was evaluated. Five beds of 40cm by 40cm with depth 30cm, partitioned on 220cm² plot of land in Aluu, Port Harcourt were used for the study. A volume, 0.9 liters of Crude Oil was used to contaminate 4 beds of partitioned soil per 0.18m² and left undisturbed for 14 days. Three of the partitioned contaminated beds (XgCH, YgCH and ZgCH) were thereafter bio-stimulated with 50g, 75g and 100g respectively of Cow Horn-Powder. The 4^th served as negative control and the 5^th, neither stimulated nor contaminated. Soil samples in triplicates, collected from depth 0-25cm from various beds at day zero soil contamination, Biostimulation Week 6 and 8 respectively were homogenized and analyzed for relevant Hydrocarbon indices, Heavy Metals and Physico-chemicals using standard methods. The highest remediation concentrations of the TPH which ranged between 652.11±0.0050 mg/kg and 893.20±0.005 mg/kg and PAH (92.99±0.001 mg/kg and 54.08±0.001 mg/kg) after eight weeks of remediation yielded 59.1% and 42.0% respectively. Degrees of reductions which ranged between 0.10±0.01 and 26.0±0.05 were recorded in the values of the Heavy Metals (Ni, Pb, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe and Cd). Accordingly, significant differences (P≤0.05) were noticed between the values of TPH, PAH and Heavy Metals of the impacted soils and controls. Results suggest that Cow Horn-Powder is potent in remediating Crude Oil impacted Soils.