Remediation of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated sites by DNA diagnosis-based bioslurping technology Seungjin Kim a , Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown b , Jong-Oh Kim c , Jinwook Chung d, ⁎ a Environmental Engineering Department, Samsung Engineering Co., Ltd., 500 Samsung GEC, Sangil-Dong, Gangdong-Gu, Seoul 134-728, Republic of Korea b Center for Environmental Biotechnology, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, 1001 South McAllister Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85287-5701, USA c Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-Ro, Seongdong-Gu, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea d R&D Center, Samsung Engineering Co., Ltd., 415-10 Woncheon-Dong, Youngtong-Gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do 443-823, Republic of Korea HIGHLIGHTS • Different molecular techniques were applied to evaluate the bioremdiation potential • DNA microarray as screening tools was developed • Based on DNA diagnosis, the remediation of contaminated soil was implemented sucessfully • Bioslurping technology in treating petroleum-contaminated site was demonstrated abstract article info Article history: Received 12 May 2014 Received in revised form 30 July 2014 Accepted 1 August 2014 Available online xxxx Editor: M. Hanson Keywords: Bioslurping BTEX Diagnosis technology Oligonucleotide microarray TPH The application of effective remediation technologies can benefit from adequate preliminary testing, such as in lab-scale and Pilot-scale systems. Bioremediation technologies have demonstrated tremendous potential with regards to cost, but they cannot be used for all contaminated sites due to limitations in biological activity. The purpose of this study was to develop a DNA diagnostic method that reduces the time to select contaminated sites that are good candidates for bioremediation. We applied an oligonucleotide microarray method to detect and monitor genes that lead to aliphatic and aromatic degradation. Further, the bioremediation of a contaminat- ed site, selected based on the results of the genetic diagnostic method, was achieved successfully by applying bioslurping in field tests. This gene-based diagnostic technique is a powerful tool to evaluate the potential for bio- remediation in petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The main cause of contamination of soil and groundwater is the leakage of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH), from underground storage tanks (USTs). PHs have densities lower than water, because of that they are classified as light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL). Technolo- gies for remediation of contaminated water and soil are classified as physical/chemical and biological processes. The selection and applica- tion of these technologies depend on the characteristics of the soil and contaminant, the desired effectiveness of each method, their economic viability, and the estimated time of effective results (Reddy et al. 1999; RAAG, 2000). Some advantages of bioremediation include: low land requirements and low capital and operating costs (Hoeppel and Hinchee, 1994; Lei et al., 1994). However, due to certain limitations in the growth condi- tions of microorganisms capable of biodegrading PH, biological and physicochemical properties such as: the presence of the right microor- ganisms, substrate availability, and the biodegradation capabilities of the microbes present, must be examined to successfully bioremediate a contaminated site. Among bioremediation technologies, bioslurping is the adaptation and application of vacuum-enhanced dewatering technologies to reme- diate hydrocarbon-contaminated sites (CPEO, 1998; FRTR, 1999; Khan et al., 2004). Bioslurping uses elements of bioventing and free product recovery to address two separate contaminant media (GWRTAC, 1996; MRI, 1998; Yen et al., 2003; Gidarakos and Aivalioti, 2007), simul- taneously recovering free products and bioremediating vadose zone Science of the Total Environment 497–498 (2014) 250–259 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 31 260 6053; fax: +82 31 260 6008. E-mail address: jin-wook.chung@samsung.com (J. Chung). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.08.002 0048-9697/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv