Application of Hog Fuel for the Bioremediation of Oil Contaminated Soils

Hog fuel is a waste product from the forestry industry where many paper and pulp mills simply dispose of it by burning. In this study, the effect of applying this forestry waste for the remediation of oil contaminated soil was investigated. A field landfarming of soils contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons at an oil and gas facility in western Canada was implemented with the addition of hog fuels. The experiments were conducted for 5 months while the average temperature was 11.4°C. The results show that landfarming decreased the TPH concentrations in all the four experimental plots. Up to 81% of the petroleum hydrocarbons in the soils were removed in the three experimental plots with addition of hog fuel, as compared to 43% efficiency with no addition of bulking agent in one plot. Thus hog fuel showed significant positive influence on landfarming efficiency in this study.