Kavitha Ramadass (PhD Student)
University of South Australia

Project Title
Bioavailability and toxicity of petroleum hydrocarbons- Development of ecological safe limits and bioremediation technology

Biography
Kavitha obtained her B.Sc in Agriculture and M.Sc in Environmental Sciences from Tamilnadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore, India. Post Graduation, her research was focussed on the enrichment of the composted municipal solid waste through additives like composted poultry manure , spent wash and beneficial microbial inoculum. Kavitha also studied the evaluation of the enriched compost through estimating its yield and changes in soil properties in the rice cultivation. Kavitha received the best student award for obtaining thehighest mark in her graduate studies.

Start Date
March 2008

Project Details
In Australia there are approximately one lakh contaminated sites that are to be remediated effectively for preventing the environmental deterioration.Among the contaminants, Petroleum hydrocarbonsin soil and groundwater is of most concern. Nearly 50% of the contaminated sites being managed or regulated by the authorities, thatare related to petroleum hydrocarbons. Petroleum hydrocarbons are naturally occurring chemicals, exploited by humans for a wide range of purposes, such as the fueling of vehicles and heating of homes. Petroleum hydrocarbons are in gaseous (natural gas), liquid (crude oil), or solid (tars and asphalts) forms and are basically mixtures of various classes of hydrocarbon compounds. Petroleum is a complex mixture of non-aqueous and hydrophobic components like n-alkane, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes. Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) is defined as carbon range C₆ through C₃₅ representing a wide variety of complex mixtures of compounds. Most of the previous research is carried out in the bioremediation and toxicity of total petroleum hydrocarbons only. So far research have not been focussed on fractions (individual compound) of the petroleum hydrocarbons that are potential to cause toxicity. Also the information about residual risk of the individual hydrocarbon compound after the bioremediation have not been found in the lietrature. Ecological guidelines for petroleum hydrocarbon toxicity are not based on the individual compounds, available only for total petroleum hydrocarbons. So this research will be focussed on speciation, bioavailability and toxicity of individual petroleum hydrocarbons especially the commercial products such as diesel, kerosene and lubricating oil in soil. Further, research will help in setting up the ecological safe limits for individual hydrocarbons and development of a suitable and feasible bioremedaiton technology for the petroleum hydrocarbon contamination.