Remediation of Hydrocarbons in Soil by Medicago sativa Plant

Petroleum products are necessary to modern civilization, mostly in the development of economic and agricultural goods. Transporting fuel causes significant environmental risks such as unloading, spills and leaks. For this reason, this study was conducted in order to evaluate and know the possibility of using and applying phytoremediation on soil contaminated with gas oil. This study was taking place at the University of Karbala. As well as field work was conducted in the college's garden. Twelve pots were used for the phytoremediation of contaminated soil. Each pot, was packed with three kilograms soil garden. All pots were formed concurrently using 1, 3, and 5 g of gas oil per kilogram of soil. Soil with each of the gas oil concentrations was planted with the 50 seeds of selected Medicago sativa plant. The control setting was kept without gas oil adding. The experiment lasted about 90 days. It has been determined physical and chemical properties for the soil such as assessment of soil pH, EC, moisture, organic matter; determination of plant properties and estimation removal rat of petroleum hydrocarbon (gas oil). Results showed the highest rate removal 60% was observed within 1g concentration, followed by 3g concentration with removal 39%, where was the lowest removal 14% was shown within 5g concentration. The weight of fresh and dry sample dramatically dropped as the level of contamination raised. The lowest and highest result of the fresh weight test after three months ranged between (1.87 -35.46 gm in 5g concentration and control pots, respectively). The study conclusions that the Medicago sativa plant has the ability to tolerate soil contaminated with gas oil, and this plant also provides the appropriate conditions for the analysis of hydrocarbons at all gas oil concentrations.