Sasek et al. ran a study in which flasks were placed soil between two layers of 50 grams of straw that were colonized with mycelium. The flasks were then incubated at 26 degrees Celsius with ‘regular’ addition of distilled water. After 14 weeks, the I. lacteus mycelium eliminated 67% - 13% of 6 types of aromatic hydrocarbons that were present in the original soil. P. ostreatus,  another type of mycelium, removed 26-0% of the 6 types of aromatic hydrocarbons. Neither type of mycelium degraded chrysene (an element of gasoline), but both treated samples also had more germinated mustard seeds and less biolumincence in bacteria.

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) compared three bioremediation approaches of mycoremediation, bioremediation, and enhanced bacterial remediation in a 4-month experiment. They used outdoor exposure and the bioremediation techniques to treat aged oil-contaminated soils in Bellingham, Washington. Although plants were growing on the mycoremediation-treated soil and not on the other soils in the experiment, the results of hydrocarbon breakdown were inconclusive because of the heterogeneity of the soil and soil contaminants (Thomas et al., 1998).