Monitoring the progress of biological decontamination of soil - by determn. of the compsn. of the gases flowing to the outside from the points being monitored

摘要

Method comprises measuring the compsn. of the soil gases flowing to the outside from the points being monitored. Pref. the concn. of O2, CO2, N2O and opt. other significant gas concns. are measured and the supply of fresh air to the soil is interrupted during the monitoring. USE/ADVANTAGE - The procedure allows the progress of biological decontamination in soils to be monitored without the necessity of taking soil samples. Measurement of the O2 consumption and CO2 prodn. indicates the extent of harmful material decomposition and N2O formation indicates the state of aeration of the soil. The process can be carried out automatically and the results used to optimise the decontamination process by calculation of the local concns. of active biomass and activatable hydrocarbons.