Bioremediation of Lubricant Oil Pollution in Water by Bacillus megaterium

Abstract

Lubricant oil from Pump motors, automobile engines and engines of boats and ships constitute an important pollutant of water and soil ecosystems, leading to devastating damage to the aquatic ecosystem at times of accidents. There are wide varieties of microorganisms in water and soil known to utilize petroleum hydrocarbons as an energy source and degrade them. Hydrocarbon utilizers (HCUs) found to be useful in the remediation of oil pollution in soil and water, includes certain species of Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, Bacillus. This work is primarily based on degradation study of engine oil and evaluation of the effectiveness of indigenous microorganisms in the process. Microbes isolated from polluted sites have been screened for their ability to grow under in vitro culture, where used engine oil was the sole carbon source. Evaluation of residual oil content and percentage degradation of oil in culture medium was measured at regular intervals of 7 days for a period of 28 days. Residual oil was estimated by the toluene cold extraction method, percentage degradation of hydrocarbons was evaluated using Gas Chromatography (GC). And heavy metals in the sample before and after remediation were also analyzed by Energy diffraction spectroscopy (EDS) and characterised using Scanning Electron microscope (SEM). Results of the study have indicated that microbes are potential agents studied under in vitro conditions for restoring oil contamination and thereby biodegrading the harmful hydrocarbon pollution