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 de gradation after the 20 th 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 As pergillus 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.