A comparison of candidate bacterial species for potential bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soil

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2019-07

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Ahn, Justin. Environmental Assessment. A Comparison of Candidate Bacterial Species for Potential Bioremediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soil. Soil petroleum contamination is a condition that has persisted since humans have refined crude oil and petroleum. Most commonly, soil petroleum contamination is associated with the release of petroleum from storage tanks into a soil medium. The release of petroleum into the environmental can cause health and well-being issues with humans as well as with the environment. One method to remediate petroleum contaminated site is the use of bacteria with the ability to biodegrade the petroleum hydrocarbons and petroleum by-products into a more environmentally safe by-product. Only a few bacterial genus and species are known to successfully biodegrade petroleum and petroleum by-products with a significant impact to the environment. The bacterial species that have the ability to degrade petroleum and petroleum by-products do so by producing biosurfacants which alter hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of the bacteria organism and the contaminant of concern. Four bacterial genus, Acinetobactor, Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, and Bacillus, were researched to determine their abilities to degrade petroleum and petroleum-by products. Biosurfacants were determined to be a major factor in assessing a bacterial species’ biodegradation ability. Research has shown that biodegradation ability is relatively high in the bacterial genus Acinetobactor and Pseudomonas. Biodegradation abilities were also determined to vary between species even within the same genus. Further research and studies of individual candidate bacterial species are necessary to determine candidate bacterial species to degrade petroleum contaminated soil.

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