Abstract:The pot experiment was conducted to investigate how alfalfa, Fusarium sp. ZHH2, starch as well as their combination of different size could remove high molecular weight PAHs (HMW-PAHs) in agricultural soil in a coal mine area. The results showed that the removal rate of 6 types of individual HMW-PAHs (BbF, BkF, BaP, DbA, InP and BghiP) was in the range of 4.22%~45.01% in alfalfa treatment (M). There were significant differences among the combined treatments using different inoculum size of ZH-H2 and alfalfa (H1+M, H2+M, H3+M) for the degradation of HMW-PAHs. And the range of removal rates of 6 types of HMW-PAHs were 11.01%~ 45.30% and 15.20%~43.58% for treatment H1+M and H2+M, respectively. Compared with M treatment, the removal rates of BkF in teatment H1+M and H2+M increased by 1.62 times and 2.60 times respectively, whereas the other PAHs had no significant difference. However, compared to treatment M, H3+M treatment had a significant negative effect on the removal of HMW-PAHs . On the basis of H and M combination, starch of different size was added to improve the removal of these HMW-PAHs in soil. Further, the effect of the three factors treatments (D1+H1+M, D1+H2+M, D1+H3+M, D2+H1+M, D2+H2+M and D2+H3+M) on HMW-PAHs removal was analyzed. The results showed that the removal rates of BbF, BkF, BaP, InP, DbA and BghiP in the D1+H2+M treatment were the highest among all treatments of three factor combinations, which were 28.87%, 54.59%, 47.04%, 65.91%, 66.42%, and 71.88% respectively. And there was no significant difference between D1+H1+M and D1+H2+M in the removal of each HMW-PAH. Compared with H2+M treatment, the removal rate in the D1+H2+M treatment increased significantly by 0.46, 2.59, 1.71, 1.15, 0.52, and 1.37 times, respectively (P < 0.05). Therefore, the combination of Fusarium sp. ZH-H2, starch and alfalfa offers a suitable alternative for phytoremediation of aged PAH-contaminated soil in coal mining areas, with a recommended inoculation size of 0.5 g Fusarium sp. ZHH2, 0.25g starch per kg soil with the growth of alfalfa.