Use of Liquid Industrial By-Products as Biostimulants in the Remediation of Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soils

Soil contamination by petroleum hydrocarbons represents a significant environmental challenge, especially in industrial and urban areas. This study evaluates the use of three industrial liquid by-products—sludge dewatering sidestream (SD), leftover yeast (LY), and secondary clarifier effluent (SC)—as biostimulant agents for the bioremediation of soils contaminated with gasoline and diesel mixtures. The novelty lies in applying these waste streams within a circular economy framework, with the added advantage that they can be injected directly into the subsurface. Microcosm tests were conducted over 20 weeks, analyzing the degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) and their aliphatic and aromatic fractions using gas chromatography. The results show that all by-products improved biodegradation compared to natural attenuation. LY was the most effective, achieving 73.2% TPH removal, followed by SD (70.6%) and SC (65.4%). The greatest degradation was observed in short-chain hydrocarbons (C6–C16), while compounds with higher molecular weight (C21–C35) were more recalcitrant. In addition, aliphatic hydrocarbons showed greater degradability than aromatics in heavy fractions. Kinetic analysis revealed that the second-order model best fitted the experimental data, with higher correlation coefficients (R2) and more representative half-lives. Catalase enzyme activity also increased in soils treated with LY and SD, indicating higher microbial activity.