The National Grid Company owns and operates a high voltage electricity transmission system for England and Wales. Part of the system requires the operation and maintenance of transformers.
Leaks can occurs at joints, resulting in leakage of transformer oil to the soil environment.
This project will test the overall hypothesis that contamination of soil with transformer oil further reduces the bioavailability and toxicity of PAHs in soils. Specifically, the student will investigate the role of transformer oil in the partitioning of PAHs to soil organic matter, and hence its influence on bioavailability to soil organisms. The student will receive training in 14C-radiolabelling coupled with biological and chemical techniques to assess PAH bioavailability, biodegradability and toxicity. The student will also be trained in the use of a range of techniques that can quantify changes in the abundance of different microbial and faunal groups in soil. National Grid is interested in assessing the impact of transformer oil on the soil and its incumbent biota and how this problem can be remediated.