Studies on crude oil removal from pebbles by the application of biodiesel.

Oil residues along shorelines are hard to remove after an oil spill. The effect of biodiesel to eliminate crude oil from pebbles alone and in combination with petroleum degrading bacteria was investigated in simulated systems. Adding biodiesel made oil detach from pebbles and formed oil-biodiesel mixtures, most of which remained on top of seawater. The total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal efficiency increased with biodiesel quantities but the magnitude of augment decreased gradually. When used with petroleum degrading bacteria, the addition of biodiesel (BD), nutrients (NUT) and BD+NUT increased the dehydrogenase activity and decreased the biodegradation half lives. When BD and NUT were replenished at the same time, the TPH removal efficiency was 7.4% higher compared to the total improvement of efficiency when BD and NUT was added separately, indicating an additive effect of biodiesel and nutrients on oil biodegradation.

Effects of nitrate concentration in interstitial water on the bioremediation of simulated oil-polluted shorelines.

Nutrient addition has been proved to be an effective strategy to enhance oil biodegradation in marine shorelines. To determine the optimal range of nutrient concentrations in the bioremediation of oil-polluted beaches, nitrate was added to the simulated shoreline models in the initial concentration of 1, 5 and 10 mg/L. Whenever the NO3-N concentration declined to 70% of its original value, additional nutrients were supplemented to maintain a certain range. Results showed adding nutrients increased the oil biodegradation level, the counts of petroleum degrading bacteria (PDB) and heterotrophic bacteria (HB), and the promoted efficiency varied depending on the concentration of nitrate. Oil degradation level in 5 mg/L (NO3-N) group reached as much as 84.3% accompanied with the consistently highest counts of PDB; while in 1 mg/L group oil removal efficiency was only 35.2%, and the numbers of PDB and HB were relatively low compared to the other groups supplemented with nutrients. Although counts of HB in the 10 mg/L group were remarkable, lower counts of PDB resulted in poorer oil removal efficiency (70.5%) compared to 5 mg/L group. Furthermore, it would need more NO3-N (0.371 mg) to degrade 1 mg diesel oil in the 10 mg/L group than in the 5 mg/L group (0.197 mg). In conclusion, Nitrate concentration in 5 mg/L is superior to 1 and 10 mg/L in the enhancement of diesel oil biodegradation in simulated shorelines.

Degradation of crude oil by indigenous microorganisms supplemented with nutrients.

Different kinds of mineral nutrients(NO3-N, NH4-N and PO4-P) were applied in the simulated oil-polluted seawater for enhancing oil biodegradation in the N/P ratio 10:1 and 20:1. Although indigenous microorganisms have the ability to degrade oil, adding nutrients accelerated biodegradation rates significantly. For the group amended with NO3-N and PO4-P in the ratio 10:1, the reaction rate coefficient was 4 times higher than the natural biodegradation. Chemical and microbiological analysis showed that the optimal N/P ratio in the system is 10:1, and microorganisms tend to utilize nitrate rather than ammonium as N source.