Soil Bed Reactors in the Mitigation of Coal Combustion Products: The Effects on Gas Compostion and on the Soil Through which It was Passed

Abstract

Unscrubbed stack gas, when passed through columns of soil. affected both the stack gas composition and the chemical and biological characteristics of the soil through which it was passed. Of the stack gas components analyzed, S02, H2S, and CO concentrations decreased while N02 increased as they passed through the soil. The soil exposed to the stack gas dropped significantly in pH and moisture level. In addition, the number of bacteria and fungi colonies counted on King's B, Actinomycete Isolation Agar, and Rose Benal decreased significantly. Microbial biomass determined via chloroform fumigation and incubation decreased, but the rate of CO2 evolved from the soil during basal respiration remained the same. After exposure, during incubation, the soil evolved CO.