Time Dependent Influence of Aerobic Heterotrophic Bacteria Cyanobacteria Interaction during Biodegradation of Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Biodegradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, consortium of cyanobacteria and aerobic heterotrophic bacteria and the control was monitored for a period of 49 days, using GC-MS. The chromatograms showed that after contamination of water with same volume of crude in same quantity of water for all the treatments, PAHs were; 3.68, 23.5, 13.7 and 5.49 mg/L for AHB, CB, AHB + CB and control. The PAHs components were naphthalene, acencephthylene, acenaphthene, fluorence, anthracence, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, beiz @ anthracene, chrysene, benzo (h) fluoranthene, benzo (k) fluoranthene, benzo (a) pyrene, dibenzo (a, h) anthracene, indeno (1, 2, 3-c, d) perylene, benzo (g, h, i) perylene. The result showed a decrease in the quantity of PAHs for all the treatment options on the last day of the experiment though some fluctuations in the quantity of PAHs' were observed in all the treatment options throughout the period monitored. The growth of AHB and cyanobacteria however increased steadily with time throughout the sampling period of the experiment in all the treatment options. The degradation of PAH's was statistically significant (p<0.05) with time.