Bioslurry phase remediation of chlorpyrifos contaminated soil: Process evaluation and optimization by Taguchi design of experimental (DOE) methodology

Design of experimental (DOE) methodology using Taguchi orthogonal array (OA) was applied to evaluate the influence of eight biotic and abiotic factors (substrate-loading rate, slurry phase pH, slurry phase dissolved oxygen (DO), soil water ratio, temperature, soil microflora load, application of bioaugmentation and humic substance concentration) on the soil bound chlorpyrifos bioremediation in bioslurry phase reactor. The selected eight factors were considered at three levels (18 experiments) in the experimental design. Substrate-loading rate showed significant influence on the bioremediation process among the selected factors. Derived optimum operating conditions obtained by the methodology showed enhanced chlorpyrifos degradation from 1479.99 to 2458.33 μg/g (over all 39.82% enhancement). The proposed method facilitated systematic mathematical approach to understand the complex bioremediation process and the optimization of near optimum design parameters, only with a few well-defined experimental sets.