Diesel pollution biodegradation: synergetic effect of Mycobacterium and filamentous fungi.
OBJECTIVE
To biodegrade the diesel pollution in aqueous solution inoculated with Mycobacterium and filamentous fungi.


METHODS
Bacteria sampled from petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated sites in Karamay Oilfield were isolated and identified as Mycobacterium hyalinum (MH) and cladosporium. Spectrophotometry and gas chromatography (GC) were used to analyze of the residual concentrations of diesel oil and its biodegradation products.


RESULTS
From the GC data, the values of apparent biodegradation ratio of the bacterial strain MH to diesel oil were close to those obtained in the control experiments. Moreover, the number of MH did not increase with degradation time. However, by using n-octadecane instead of diesel oil, the real biotic degradation ratio increased to 20.9% over 5 days of degradation. Cladosporium strongly biodegraded diesel oil with a real degradation ratio of up to 34% after 5 days treatment. When the two strains were used simultaneously, a significant synergistic effect between them resulted in almost complete degradation of diesel oil, achieving a total diesel removal of 99% over 5 days of treatment, in which one part of about 80% and another part of about 19% were attributed to biotic and abiotic processes, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The observed synergistic effect was closely related to the aromatics-degrading ability of Cladosporium, which favored the growth of MH and promoted the bioavailability of diesel oil.
Li
You-Qing
YQ
Department of Chemistry, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China.
Liu
Hong-Fang
HF
Tian
Zhen-Le
ZL
Zhu
Li-Hua
LH
Wu
Ying-Hui
YH
Tang
He-Qing
HQ
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002963:Cladosporium / Q000378:metabolism*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D005742:Gasoline; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000378:metabolism*
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005742:Gasoline