Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hardly biodegradable carcinogenic organic compounds. Bioremediation is a commonly used method for treating PAH contaminated environments such as soils, sediment, water bodies and wastewater. However, bioremediation has various drawbacks including the low abundance, diversity and activity of indigenous hydrocarbon degrading bacteria, their slow growth rates and especially a limited bioavailability of PAHs in the aqueous phase. Addition of nutrients, electron acceptors or co-substrates to enhance indigenous microbial activity is costly and added chemicals often diffuse away from the target compound, thus pointing out an impasse for the bioremediation of PAHs. A promising solution is the adoption of bioelectrochemical systems. They guarantee a permanent electron supply and withdrawal for microorganisms, thereby circumventing the traditional shortcomings of bioremediation. These systems combine biological treatment with electrochemical oxidation/reduction by supplying an anode and a cathode that serve as an electron exchange facility for the biocatalyst. Here, recent achievements in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon removal using bioelectrochemical systems have been reviewed. This also concerns PAH precursors: total petroleum hydrocarbons and diesel. Removal performances of PAH biodegradation in bioelectrochemical systems are discussed, focussing on configurational parameters such as anode and cathode designs as well as environmental parameters like porosity, salinity, adsorption and conductivity of soil and sediment that affect PAH biodegradation in BESs. The still scarcely available information on microbiological aspects of bioelectrochemical PAH removal is summarised here. This comprehensive review offers a better understanding of the parameters that affect the removal of PAHs within bioelectrochemical systems. In addition, future experimental setups are proposed in order to study syntrophic relationships between PAH degraders and exoelectrogens. This synopsis can help as guide for researchers in their choices for future experimental designs aiming at increasing the power densities and PAH biodegradation rates using microbial bioelectrochemistry.

The work is concerned with the study of groundwater quality in respect of hydrocarbons content, carried out on several sites on the territory of the Oil Refinery Novi Sad (Serbia, Serbia&Montenegro). In the course of four year that elapsed since the time spillage of crude and oil derivatives and deposition of burning products on the Refinery soil (April-June 1999) the processes of passive in situ bioremediation have been taking place on the contaminated area. By comparing the results for three contamination zones in a circle of 270 m from the site at which the spillage occurred, a certain increase in content of mineral oil was observed in deeper water-bearing layers at a distance of 200 and 270 m from the spillage site. A content of BTEX components the "movement" of the pollution was observed from the close zone 1 via the farther zone 2 to the farthest zone 3, which indicates that the intensity of bioremediation and all physico-chemical processes in general, taking place on the pollution site, is not sufficient to prevent pollution spreading. The assumption that the zone in question in probably a limiting zone is based on the results of the fourth sampling campaign, in which BTEX components were not detected on any of the locations of the zones 2 and 3.