Microbial Degradation Of Normal Paraffin Hydrocarbons In Crude Oil

Abstract

Experiments designed to measure the oxidation and degradation of crude oils by naturally occurring marine microorganisms are presently being conducted. Fifty active oil degrading cultures have been isolated in enriched seawater containing crude oil. Oil degradation has been determined with gas chromatography, wet combustion, and by measurement of surface tension. Normal paraffin hydrocarbons through C-26 are degraded by two different groups of micro organisms-those growing in the oil phase only and those growing in the aqueous phase. Emulsification of the crude oil through production of surfactants was observed in many of the enriched cultures. Microbial degradation of 35 to 55 per cent of oxidizable crude oil occurred within 60 hours.

Degradation and mineralization of petroleum by two bacteria isolated from coastal waters

“…The relative recalcitrance of pristane and its value as internal st'andard has also been report.ed by ot.her ~v o r k e r s . '~*~~ The possible use of hydrocarbon utilizing microorganisms for accerlerated degradation of accidentally spilled oil is receiving serious c~nsideration.~ IIiget' et al 17 and Kator et al 15 have studied the effectiveness of-mixed marine enrichment cultures for this purpose. There is no doubt that mixed enrichments can degrade a highly complex substrate such as petroleum more effectively than any single microorganism, but the practical use of an enrichment of unknown composition is likely to encounter licensing difficulties because of its potential side effects on marine life.…”

Fate and effects of polluting petroleum in the marine environment

“…ATLAS and BARTHA (1972 a) and REISFELD et al ( 1972) et al (1972) obtained 65 percent biodegradation using mixed cultures. In the case of another petroleum, MIGET et al (1969) reported up to 55 percent biodegradation by a mixed enrichment.…”

“…Numerous strains of bacteria, yeasts, actinomycetes, and filamentous fungi have been reported to utilize various types of individual hydrocarbons (see sectioil IV), but analytical difficulties restricted the number of quantitative studies on petroleum biodegradation. While work with an organic substrate that has several hundred components, many of them still unidentified (see section II), remains difficult, gas chromatography and other modern microanalytical advances have permitted several quantitative or semiquantitative studies on the biodegradation of crude oil (ZOBELL and PROKOP 1966;GUNKEL 1967;PETIT and BARTHELEMY 1968;MIGET et al 1969;KATOR et al 1971;BRIDIE and Bos 1971;BARTHA and ATLAS 1972;ATLAS and BARTHA 1972 a, b, and c;JOBSON et al 1972;REISFELD et al 1972). Similar studies were conducted on certain petroleum fractions su.ch as motor oil (LUDZACK and KINKEAD 1956) and gas oil (MILLER and JOHNSON 1966).…”

“…Most efforts have been directed towards the study of petroleum degradation either by pure cultures of marine petroleum degraders or by mixed enrichments (MIGET et al 1969, KATOR et al 1971, BRIDIE and Bos 1971, ATLAS and BARTHA 1972a, JOBSON et al 1972, REISFELD et al 1972. In general, mixed enrichments were found to be more effective than single strains (ZOBELL 1969), although some of the latter performed on paraffinic petroleums remarkably well.…”

Biosynthesis of fatty acids and triacylglycerols by 2,6,10,14-tetramethyl pentadecane-grown cells of Nocardia globerula 432

“…Methyl branching can block the L-oxidation pathway increasing the resistance of the hydrocarbon to biodegradation [10,11]. For this reason, the branched hydrocarbon pristane was used in some works as an internal standard in environmental hydrocarbon biodegradation processes [11,12]. However, pristane oxidation has been reported for di¡erent bacteria, such as Brevibacterium [13], Corynebacterium [14], and Rhodococcus [15].…”