Authors: Abdulatif A Mansur Eric M Adetutu Krishna K Kadali Paul D Morrison Yuana Nurulita Andrew S Ball
Publish Date: 2014/06/04
Volume: 21, Issue: 18, Pages: 10725-10735
Abstract
The disposal of hazardous crude oil tank bottom sludge COTBS represents a significant waste management burden for South Mediterranean countries Currently the application of biological systems bioremediation for the treatment of COTBS is not widely practiced in these countries Therefore this study aims to develop the potential for bioremediation in this region through assessment of the abilities of indigenous hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms from Libyan Hamada COTBS for the biotreatment of Libyan COTBScontaminated environments Bacteria were isolated from COTBS COTBScontaminated soil treated COTBScontaminated soil and uncontaminated soil using Bushnell Hass medium amended with Hamada crude oil 1 as the main carbon source Overall 49 bacterial phenotypes were detected and their individual abilities to degrade Hamada crude and selected COBTS fractions naphthalene phenanthrene eicosane octadecane and hexane were evaluated using MT2 Biolog plates Analyses using average well colour development showed that ~90 of bacterial isolates were capable of utilizing representative aromatic fractions compared to 51 utilization of representative aliphatics Interestingly more hydrocarbonoclastic isolates were obtained from treated contaminated soils 429 than from COTBS 265 or COTBScontaminated 306 and control 0 soils Hierarchical cluster analysis HCA separated the isolates into two clusters with microorganisms in cluster 2 being 17 to 5fold better at hydrocarbon degradation than those in cluster 1 Cluster 2 isolates belonged to the putative hydrocarbondegrading genera Pseudomonas Bacillus Arthrobacter and Brevundimonas with 57 of these isolates being obtained from treated COTBScontaminated soil Overall this study demonstrates that the potential for PAH degradation exists for the bioremediation of Hamada COTBScontaminated environments in Libya This represents the first report on the isolation of hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria from Libyan COTBS and COTBScontaminated soilThis work was supported by the Libyan Ministry of Higher Education and Science Research The authors thank the Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering Azzawiya University Libya the management of Azzawiya oil refinery Libya and brothers Ali Mansour Mohamad Ahfeda and Nassradden Souf for supplying soil and COTBS samples
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