TITLE:
Kinetics of Bioremediation of Oil Contaminated Water Dispersed by Environment-Friendly Bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Fungi (Aspergillus niger)
AUTHORS:
Onoh Ikechukwu Maxwell, Mbah Gordian Onyebuchukwu, Okeke Elochukwu Chinonso, Igwilo Christopher Nnaemeka, Eze Kenneth Afamefuna
KEYWORDS:
Bioremediation, Aspergillus niger, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Crude Oil, Oil Contaminated Water, Kinetics
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
17,
2023
ABSTRACT: The comparative effectiveness of remediating water polluted with crude
oil, using environment-friendly bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and fungi (Aspergillus niger) were investigated. The samples were separately treated with Aspergillus niger and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bioremediation kinetic
efficiency for these systems was studied. At the end of the bioremediation
periods, the oil and grease content of the samples decreased from 47.0 mg/L in
the untreated sample to 7.0 mg/L after 20 days when inoculated with bacteria while the sample inoculated with fungi
decreased to 10.0 mg/L. Post analysis when inoculated with bacteria showed a fall
in the value of the biological oxygen demand (BOD) from 73.84 mg/L to 33.28
mg/L after 20 days, while, the fungi inoculated sample showed a reduction from
73.84 mg/L to 38.48 mg/L. The biodegradation process with the bacteria was
consistent with the pseudo-first-order model with a rate constant of 0.0891 day-1,
while the biodegradation process with the fungi was consistent with the first
order reaction model with a rate constant of 0.422 day-1. The degree
of degradation after the 20th day of inoculation with Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 85.11%, while with Aspergillus niger was
78.72%. Thus, the results obtained showed that, Pseudomonas aeruginosa performed better than Aspergillus niger. The bioremediation
data with fungi fitted the first-order model, while that of the bacteria fitted
the pseudo-first-order model. Therefore, the data obtained in this study could be applied in the design of a
bioremediation system for potential application to remediation of crude oil
polluted water.