Phenanthrene Removal From Liquid Medium With Emphasis on Production of Biosurfactant Publisher Pubmed



Golshan M¹ ; Kalantary RR^{2, 3} ; Nasseri S⁴ ; Farzadkia M³ ; Esrafili A³ ; Gharibzadeh F⁵ ; Takanlu LK³ ; Alvani V⁶
Source: Water Science and Technology Published:2016

Abstract

The production of biosurfactant, its correlation with the initial bacterial inoculum in the liquid phase, and its effect on PAH bioremediation performance were studied. Two strains Pseudomonas facilis and Pseudomonas spp. were able to form a large clear zone diameter on the oil (crude oil from Tehran oil refinery) surface. Phenanthrene (PHE) was utilized as a sole substrate. Biosurfactant production (BP) was detected by methylene blue analysis procedure and surface tension (ST) lowering. The capacity of these two strains to lower the aqueous ST was 29 and 30.7 from 72 mN/m by 6 days for P. facilis and Pseudomonas spp., respectively. Higher initial bacterial inoculation resulted in an improvement in PHE removal (P < 0.0001). But there was no significant correlation between either PHE solubility or BP and the initial bacterial inoculation. The removal efficiency of 88.44% within 21 days confirms that the inoculation of P. facilis led to the considerable BP for removal of PAHs from contaminated water. Inoculation of biosurfactant producing bacteria and addition of its own biosurfactant could have a good potential in biodegradation of PAHs and fossil fuels.