Kinetics of Bioremediation of Oil Contaminated Water Dispersed by Environment-Friendly Bacteria (<i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>) and Fungi (<i>Aspergillus niger</i>)

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.