Combined technologies for the remediation of soils contaminated by organic pollutants. A review

Abstract

Organic-contaminated soils are a major health issue because pollutants can be transferred to waters, air, and living organisms. Many remediation technologies have been developed, yet single methods are usually not fully efficient due to the wide diversity of soil and pollutant properties. Therefore, combining several methods has recently shown wider application range, higher efficiency, and better economic benefits. Here we compare combined remediation technologies to clean organic-contaminated soils, with focus on physical–chemical, physical–chemical-biological, and biological-microbial methods. Physical–chemical methods are the most widely used due to their high efficiency, yet they are costly, and they alter soil properties. These issues can be alleviated by adding a biological treatment. Combined biological-microbial methods are more recent and rely on bioengineering.