Effects of Different Heat Treatment Methods on Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metal Content in Oil Sludge Waste and Ecotoxicological Evaluation

Abstract

The discharge of large amounts of oily sludge heat treatment residues constitutes a severe threat to the environment. However, little is known about the toxicity of these heat-treated residues. Current research has mainly focused on the toxic effects of single heavy metals or single hydrocarbons on plants, whereas the phytotoxic effects of hydrocarbon–metal mixtures have remained largely unexplored. In this study, pot experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of different proportions of heat treatment residues (pyrolysis, heat-washing, and high-temperature oxidation residues) from three kinds of oily sludge on the physiological and biochemical parameters of mung bean plants. Higher proportions of residues decreased the germination rates and enzyme activity of mung beans compared to uncontaminated soil. When pyrolysis residue, hot-washing residue, and high-temperature thermal oxidation residue are used in green planting soil, their content must be lower than 30%, 90%, and 70%, respectively. Additionally, our findings indicated that the accumulation level of pollutants in oily sludge heat treatment residues was not high. However, the three kinds of residues exhibited different degrees of plant toxicity. The pyrolysis residue still exhibited strong ecotoxicity, even at low concentrations. In contrast, the toxicity of the hot-washing residue was much lower than that of the pyrolysis residue and the high-temperature thermal oxidation residue. Our findings indicated that mung bean is highly tolerant of contaminated soil and is therefore well suited for phytoremediation applications.