Evaluating the Phytoremediation Capabilities of Bamboo and Barnyard Grass in Crude Oil Spill Recovery

Abstract

Crude oil spill is an unavoidable and unwanted part of the petroleum industry, which has caused devastating effects for decades. Crude oil spill leaves the affected area contaminated for years; affecting water source and marine life for offshore, and the soil with its constituents for onshore scenario. Advancement in technology produced chemicals for crude oil spill cleanup. The major side effect of this clean-up method is its environmental impact on plants and animals; Some organisms in water bodies get suffocated in offshore case and many plants do not grow in such soils, for onshore cases. Another challenge is the cost of cleanup, which is between 2.4 to 9.4 billion dollars. Phytoremediation is cheap, easy to manage, liable to gain public acceptance, and restore livelihood (agriculture and fishing) to the inhabitants. Bamboo and barnyard grass have been discovered to be of effective use in phytoremediation. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of adopting phytoremediation techniques to curtail crude oil spill by adopting a sustainable approach using Bamboo and Barnyard grass. A crude oil spill scenario was simulated, where Bamboo and Barnyard grass were planted in order to evaluate the more efficient in phytoremediation. There was a weekly soil analysis for 15 weeks, after which results began to show that Bamboo grass increased soil conductivity by 123.91% while Barnyard grass increased soil conductivity by 114.63% Also, Bamboo increased soil salinity by 150% while Barnyard grass increased soil salinity by 107.5%. This means bamboo relatively did better in decreasing the soil's crude oil saturation level, replacing it with air and water, which are better conductors.