Potential of Boehmia nivea as phytoremediator for petroleum-contaminated soil following nitrogen-fixing bacteria inoculation

Abstract

Phytoremediation is one of an alternative technology to overcome a petroleum-contaminated soil. Boehmia nivea or Ramie has the potential to be used as a phytoremediatoragent to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons. The effort to improve the performance of Ramie in degrading petroleum hydrocarbons is through the concept of phytostimulant inoculation in biological fertilizer. The objective of pot experiment was to investigate the performance of Ramie as a phytoremediator of petrolleum waste. The research was designed in a randomized block design and consisted of Ramie treatment without inoulation, Ramie inoculated with 2% Azotobacter vinelandii, 2% Azospirillum sp., and 2% consortia of both inoculants. Experimental result showed that Ramie plants removed petroleum hydrocarbons up to 83.22% after 13 week of inoculation. The efficacy of hydrocarbon degradation increased significantly if Ramie plants was inoculated by N-fixing bacteria, but the biodegradation efficiency in biofertilizer treatments was not significantly different.