Assessment of Bioremediation of Oil and Phenol Contents in Refinery Waste Water via Bacterial Consortium

Abstract

The present study concerns with the biotreatment of waste water of petroleum refinery. The experiments were performed to assess the degradation potential of microbial species present in the waste water and using microbial consortium to treat the water in a suspension form. The four bacterial isolates were isolated and assessed for the biodegradation of crude oil and phenol in the waste water gravimetrically and by spectrophotometry respectively. The isolated bacterial strains were identified as Alcaligenes odorans, Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium propinquum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa which were inoculated into waste water in the form of bacterial consortium. After inoculation of consortium, it was found that oil and phenol contents in the waste water reduced up to 70% and 85% respectively via bioremediation. The search for cheaper and environment friendly options for enhancing degradation of petroleum contamination was the main research interest and bioremediation is showing a greater effective way of remediating natural ecosystem contaminated with crude oil from a number of decades.