Biodegradation of Aliphatic and Aromatic hydrocarbons by bacteria isolated from Bahregan area

• Published in: Letters in applied microbiology 2024-05, Vol.77 (5)
• Main Authors: Rizi, Masumeh Sadat Shahidy, Emtiazi, Giti, Sepahy, Abbas Akhavan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1472-765X; 1472-765X
• DOI: 10.1093/lambio/ovae040

Environmental pollution with aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons caused by oil and petrochemical industries has very toxic and carcinogenic effects on living organisms and should be removed from the environment. In this research, after analyzing the oil sludge of the Bahregan area, it was found that most aliphatic paraffin compounds are related to octadecane, most liquid aliphatic compounds are related to hexadecane and most aromatic compounds are related to Naphthalene, Phenanthrene, Fluoranthene, and Anthracene. Then, we investigated the ability of native bacteria from this area, such as Thalassospira, Chromohalobacter, and bacterial consortium, to biodegrade the dominant aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons found in oil sludge. The results of GC-MS analysis showed that among the tested hydrocarbon sources, Thalassospira can completely remove octadecane and hexadecane, and Chromohalobacter can reduce hexadecane from 15.9% to 9.9%. The bacterial consortium can completely remove octadecane and reduce hexadecane from 15.9% to 5.1%, toluene from 25.6% to 0.6%, and phenanthrene from 12.93% to 6%. According to the obtained results, the bacterial consortium effectively plays a role in the biodegradation of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, making it a viable solution for treating hydrocarbon pollutants in various environments.