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El tractament de residus orgànics és una important alternativa per a reduir l'impacte ambiental, el producte del qual, alhora, resulta en un agent amb múltiples aplicacions en l'agricultura. En el procés tecnològic de compostatge s'utilitzen microorganismes que degraden la matèria orgànica sota unes condicions òptimes. Experiments dissenyats i realitzats pel Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental en col·laboració amb altres institucions, mostren que el compost que s'obté, és molt versàtil quant a les diverses formes d'ús el que li permet anar més enllà de la seva aplicació com a fertilitzant, com per exemple la millora de sòls, el seu ús en agricultura pel seu efecte supressor de plagues o la bioremediació de sòls contaminats. El tratamiento de residuos orgánicos es una importante alternativa para reducir el impacto ambiental, cuyo producto, a la vez, resulta en un agente con múltiples aplicaciones en la agricultura. En el proceso tecnológico de compostaje se utilizan microorganismos que degradan la materia orgánica bajo unas condiciones óptimas. Experimentos diseñados y realizados por el Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Biológica y Ambiental en colaboración con otras instituciones, muestran que el compost que se obtiene es muy versátil en cuanto a las diversas formas de uso, lo que le permite ir más allá de su aplicación como fertilizante, como por ejemplo la mejora de suelos, su uso en agricultura por su efecto supresor de plagas o la biorremediación de suelos contaminados.

Among the different available remediation technologies, it is well-known that bioremediation methods which mainly depend on microorganisms to degrade, transform, detoxify or break down the contaminants, they are recognized as cost-effective and environmental-friendly methods. In fact, microorganisms “engine of bioremediation process” carry out their normal duty under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, which without doubt extends and motivates the desires to make use of such abilities to reduce environmental threats caused by various contaminants. However, to achieve satisfactory results during any bioremediation process, providing optimal conditions for microorganisms is considered as an essential/crucial task. Composting as one of the applied bioremediation technologies used to remediate soils contaminated with organic contaminants like PAHs still needs more investigation although a valuable effort has been devoted to elucidate the behaviour of this process in the remediation of PAHs-contaminated soils. However, till recently, anaerobically treatment of PAHs-contaminated soil received less attention as it was believed that PAHs are poorly or even impossible to be degraded under such conditions. Therefore, the present study tried to touch both aerobically bioremediation of PAH-contaminated soil through composting and anaerobically treatment of the same soil under strict methanogenic conditions. For both remediation approaches, the effect of some controlling factors had been also evaluated through experiment design methodology employing central design (CCD) technique. Regarding the composting process, the obtained results demonstrated that this technology is an advantageous and indisputable method to decontaminate PAHs-contaminated soils within short period. Additionally, compost derived from the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) was found to enhance the contaminants (PAHs) removal rate to high extent. Moreover, a lucid correlation between the contaminants removal rate and the compost stability degree was observed, such that more stable composts better enhanced the remediation process as these composts are believed to have a considerable fraction of humic matter which facilitates the desorption of the contaminants, and get more available as a consequence. At the same time, treatments with stable composts do not produce high temperature during the composting process, and normally they are in the mesophilic ranges which are more favourable for such bioremediation process. Bioaugmentation of the process through introducing white-rot fungi with desired catalytic capacity (Trametes Versicolor) in attempt to accelerate the degradation process demonstrated that no effect or enhancement was achieved through such approach. In the second part of the research, anaerobically treatment of PAHs-contaminated soil has been investigated under strict methanogenic conditions employing two types of inocula; thermophilic and mesophilic. The obtained results demonstrated the effectiveness of such biological treatments in this field. Nevertheless, the process was relatively less effective compared with composting. Furthermore, under these conditions and due to unclear reasons, reversible results were obtained as PAHs concentrations were increased with prolonged incubation, indicating the reversed bioformation of PAHs under such oxygen-deficient conditions. Therefore, future work should be devoted to clarify the reasons behind this behaviour.