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Research article1998Peer reviewed

Biodegradation of petroleum-based oil wastes through composting

Kirchmann, Holger; Ewnetu, Wasiyhun

Abstract

Composting of horse manure was used as a means of degradation of two oil wastes, oil sludge from petrol stations and petroleum residues from a refinery. Paraffin oil was chosen as a reference. Oil wastes decomposed to 78-93% during 4.5 months of composting. The degradation of the waste oils was higher than that of the reference paraffin oil and no difference was found between the two types of oil wastes concerning their decomposition. At the end of the experiment, most of the polyaromatic hydrocarbons had been degraded except pyrene, chrysene and dibenz(ah)anthracene. Gaseous losses of oil compounds through volatilisation from composts were found not to be significant.

Keywords

compost; horse manure; oil sludge; paraffin; petrol station; petroleum residue; refinery

Published in

Biodegradation
1998, Volume: 9, number: 2, pages: 151-156
Publisher: KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBL

      SLU Authors

    • Kirchmann, Holger

      • Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Soil Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008355825404

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/44211