Accumulated and weekly CO2 production by lubricant and soy oil biodegradation in aqueous media by aerobic respirometry

Abstract

Petroleum activities have caused great concern due to the impact of major contamination it and its composites havecaused to nature, mainly to aquatic environments. Among the physical, chemical and biological methods available toremediate wastewater contaminated with hydrocarbons bioremediation is considered an environment-friendly and relativelycost-effective technology. That is due to the biodegradation the process is based on, using microbial populationsin the contaminated environment remediation. The objective of this study was to assess biodegradation in contaminatedaqueous media contamined by automotive lubricant oils and vegetable oils using respirometry technique. The Bartha andPramer’s respirometric method promotes CO2 quantification in the respirometers. The used lubricant oil had higher CO2production and the used vegetable oil was more biodegradable than the still unused vegetable oil. However, these vegetableoils were less biodegraded due to the presence of TBHQ preservative in their composition, thus causing a reductionin CO2 production. Thus, an environmental behavior analysis of lubricant and vegetable oils is important to provide newstrategies in treating contaminated environments.