Decades ago, oil spill has become a global issue. It effects not only environment but also economic life. Oil spills occur due to tanker disasters, wars, operation failures, during transportation, storage, use of oil and other accidents. Soil contaminated with petroleum effects human health, causes organic pollution of groundwater, which limits its use and decreases the agricultural productivity of the soil. Therefore, it is important to clean up oil spills as quickly as possible. Nowadays researchers are looking for new technologies that tackle three most important factors related with the oil spillclean-up: money, efficiency and time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in oil-contaminated soil using silica nanocomposite. According to the findings, silica nanocomposite might increase microbial activity during biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil because of the ability of nanoparticlesto absorb water and keep moisture in soil thus creating a favourable environment for microorganisms. The study of biodegradation with the use of silica nanocomposite was carried out for a period of ten weeks in cooperation with the company Grunto Valymo Technologijos.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/aainz.2017.025