Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers

Galani, Andriani; Mamais, Daniel; Noutsopoulos, Constantinos; Anastopoulou, Petra; Varouxaki, Alexia

doi:10.3390/w14010089

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers

Andriani Galani

Daniel Mamais

^*,

Constantinos Noutsopoulos

Petra Anastopoulou

and

Alexia Varouxaki

Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, Zografou, 157 80 Athens, Greece

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Domenico Cicchella

Water 2022, 14(1), 89; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14010089

Received: 26 October 2021 / Revised: 9 December 2021 / Accepted: 30 December 2021 / Published: 4 January 2022

(This article belongs to the Section Water Quality and Contamination)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

Hexavalent chromium is a carcinogenic heavy metal that needs to be removed effectively from polluted aquifers in order to protect public health and the environment. This work aims to evaluate the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) in a contaminated aquifer through the stimulation of indigenous microbial communities with the addition of reductive agents. Soil-column experiments were conducted in the absence of oxygen and at hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) groundwater concentrations in the 1000–2000 μg/L range. Two carbon sources (molasses and EVO) and one iron electron donor (FeSO₄·7H₂O) were used as ways to stimulate the metabolism and proliferation of Cr(VI) reducing bacteria in-situ. The obtained results indicate that microbial anaerobic respiration and electron transfer can be fundamental to alleviate polluted groundwater from hazardous Cr(VI). The addition of organic electron donors increased significantly Cr(VI) reduction rates in comparison to natural soil attenuation rates. Furthermore, a combination of organic carbon and iron electron donors led to a longer life span of the remediation process and thus increased total Cr(VI) removal. This is the first study to investigate biotic and abiotic Cr(VI) removal by conducting experiments with natural soil and by applying biostimulation to modify the natural existing microbial communities. View Full-Text

Keywords: hexavalent chromium; anaerobic chromium reduction; biostimulation; organic and inorganic electron donors

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Supplementary Material

Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 1504 KiB)

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Galani, A.; Mamais, D.; Noutsopoulos, C.; Anastopoulou, P.; Varouxaki, A. Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers. Water 2022, 14, 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14010089

AMA Style

Galani A, Mamais D, Noutsopoulos C, Anastopoulou P, Varouxaki A. Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers. Water. 2022; 14(1):89. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14010089

Chicago/Turabian Style

Galani, Andriani, Daniel Mamais, Constantinos Noutsopoulos, Petra Anastopoulou, and Alexia Varouxaki. 2022. "Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers" Water 14, no. 1: 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14010089

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Author Biographies

Andriani Galani

Andriani Galani (female) has graduated from the School of Civil Engineering of NTUA and is a PhD candidate at NTUA. She holds a MSc degree in the field of Water Resources Science and Technology with specialization in Water Quality and Environmental Engineering from NTUA. She has 4 years of research experience in the area of environmental engineering, dealing mainly with wastewater treatment and reuse and remediation of polluted water bodies. She is engaged as a researcher in the European project FIT4REUSE, part of the PRIMA programme. Her Doctorate research was supported by Greece and European Union through a scholarship granted to her by the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ).

Daniel Mamais

Professor Daniel Mamais (male) is a Professor at the School of Civil Engineering, NTUA and the Director of the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, NTUA. He has more than 25 years of experience in teaching and research, dealing mainly with water, wastewater and sludge treatment, biological processes in sewerage system, removal and fate of priority substances and emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment plants, energy and nutrients recovery from wastewater, wastewater disposal and reuse and bioremediation. He is the author of over 150 journals and conference proceedings. According to Scopus his published work has received more than 2300 citations (h index =25). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the MDPI Journal Water and a reviewer editor of the Frontiers in Environmental Science Journal.

Constantinos Noutsopoulos

Constantinos Noutsopoulos is an Associate Professor at the School of Civil Engineering of NTUA. His area of expertise is related to wastewater and sludge treatment and reuse, circular economy and resources recovery, fate of emerging contaminants and modelling of biochemical processes in the aquatic environment. He has been engaged in more than 70 National and EC funded research projects dealing mainly with water, wastewater and sludge treatment and reuse, circular economy and resources recovery, removal and fate of priority substances and emerging pollutants, water resources management and mathematical modelling of biochemical processes. He is the author of more than 120 papers in scientific journals or international conferences (h index = 15 in Scopus). Currently he is participating in the Editorial Board of the MDPI Journal Energies, the IWAs Journal of Water Practice and Technology and as a Reviewer Editor of the Frontiers in Environmental Science Journal.

Petra Anastopoulou

Petra Anastopoulou holds a BSc degree in Environmental Science from the University of the Aegean (8.56/10). She received the scholarship “Research Sponsorship Omiros Kontoulis” for the highest undergraduate degree grade in 2018. During her thesis she engaged with the investigation of the removal of selected benzotriazoles from wastewater streams. The aforementioned work was published in Science of the Total Environment and in the International Symposium on Constructed Wetlands & Small Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Plants, FORTH/ICT-HT, Patras, Greece in 2019. She recently got her MSc in the field of Water Resources Science and Technology with specialization in Water Quality and Environmental Engineering from NTUA. The main subject of her master thesis was the in situ purification of underground aquifers contaminated with hexavalent chromium.

Alexia Varouxaki

Varouxaki Alexia-Katerina holds 2 diplomas, a 5-year diploma in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering from NTUA with specialization in environmental engineering and geoenvironment, and a MSc in the field of Water Resources Science and Technology with specialization in Water Quality and Environmental Engineering from NTUA. Her main research interest during her diploma and MSc theses was remediation of Cr(VI) contaminated groundwater. Since March 2021 y she has been employed as an Environmental Analyst in the company Green2Sustain IKE in Athens, which offers consulting services on Environmental Strategy and Sustainability to companies and organizations who face environmental challenges.

Article Menu

Biotic and Abiotic Biostimulation for the Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Contaminated Aquifers

Abstract

Supplementary Material

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Author Biographies

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI