Bioremediation of fuel oil sludge

Abstract

In this study two different types of bacteria were tested for their oil degrading properties. One bacterial consortium, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, was obtained from the culture collection at NCIMB Ltd. while the other was extracted from the oily sludge itself and termed as 'sludge indigenous'. The two bacterial strains were grown on standard Trypton Soy Broth bottles and agar plates. Experiments were carried out with oily sludge being the sole carbon source with the addition of nutrients and surfactant (Tween 80). Acinetobacter calcoaceticus proved to have good oil degrading properties on the contrary to the 'sludge indigenous' strain which did not achieve significant degradation. Acinetobacter calcoaceticus showed a decrease of 16.97% of the extractable fraction of the sludge over a period of 35 days as opposed to the insignificant change obtained with the indigenous bacterial strain over the same time period.