Substrate and method for anaerobic remediation

Abstract

The present invention comprises a method for anaerobic remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater comprising (a) preparing an aqueous mixture of a sparingly soluble digestible fat or oil, (b) heating and homogenizing such mixture until a stable emulsion having a particle size below 1 micron is obtained, and (c) injecting such under anaerobic conditions into the contaminated soil. The heating is preferably conducted at pasteurization temperatures and the homogenization is preferably conducted in a food homogenizer. This invention also relates to the fine emulsions formed in the homogenization and pasteurization process and to the soil that has been treated by the inventive remediation method. The emulsion is preferably combined with a water soluble, rapidly biodegradable microbial food compound and can also be combined with microbes useful in the remediation process.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.