Development of Mathematical Model for Carbon Dioxide Produced using Oxygen Diffusion for Bioremediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soils

In this research, a mathematical model was developed to study the generation of carbon dioxide using oxygen diffusion as a method in bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils at 100cm depth. The predictability of carbon dioxide concentration by the model was tested in three types of soils: sandy, sandy loam and clay soils, which were polluted with Bonny Light Crude oil and transferred into reactors with dimension 20cm x 100cm. The mathematical model in two dimensional flows (x and z) was developed from basic conservative principle and it was solved numerically to obtain the final solution. MATLAB 8.5 version (R2015a) was used to simulate the model, predicting carbon dioxide concentration along longitudinal and transverse direction of carbon dioxide generation during the bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils at 100cm depth. The results from the model were compared with experimental results and both showed good fit at all data point. Therefore, the developed model can be used for predicting the concentration of carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct in bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soils