Bioaugmentation of petroleum hydrocarbon in contaminated soil: A review

Abstract

The release of petroleum hydrocarbon products into the soil due to rapid industrialization and accidental spills poses a serious threat to soil as well as groundwater. These compounds are known as carcinogen and neurotic organic pollutants which cause serious risk to human health and ecosystem. The introduced of bioaugmentation is one of the promising strategy, inexpensive and clean in situ bioremediation due to noninvasive and the selected of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms added into the soil can accelerate the degradation capacity of organic pollutants together with indigenous microbial population in the soil. This technique produced a maximum biodegradative capacity of organic pollutants in the soil. To demonstrate the potential of bioaugmentation in soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon, many researchers studied the parameters to determine the optimal degradation conditions. In this chapter, we reviewed the experimental findings and the process of bioaugmentation of hydrocarbon-polluted soil by several selected bacterial strains that were isolated from previous studies around the world. This review focuses on the parameters affecting the bioaugmentation process by abiotic and biotic factors. The various environmental parameters monitored are temperature, moisture pH, oxygen, and nutrient levels. Other factors include the contention between indigenous and exogenous microorganisms in utilizing carbon sources and the effects of antagonistic and synergistic interactions, and these interactions potentially change the number of cells augmented in the soil. Recent studies show that mixed cultures were more successful in degrading hydrocarbons than the single strains. Therefore the best technique and approach for bioaugmentation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons will be highlighted and discussed in this chapter.