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Enhanced Biodegradation of Used Engine Oil in Soil Amended with Organic Wastes

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Abstract

Three organic wastes (banana skin (BS), brewery spent grain (BSG), and spent mushroom compost (SMC)) were used for bioremediation of soil spiked with used engine oil to determine the potential of these organic wastes in enhancing biodegradation of used oil in soil. The rates of biodegradation of the oil were studied for a period of 84 days under laboratory conditions. Hydrocarbon-utilizing bacterial counts were high in all the organic waste-amended soil ranging between 10.2 × 106 and 80.5 × 106 CFU/g compared to unamended control soil throughout the 84 days of study. Oil-contaminated soil amended with BSG showed the highest reduction in total petroleum hydrocarbon with net loss of 26.76% in 84 days compared to other treatments. First-order kinetic model revealed that BSG was the best of the three organic wastes used with biodegradation rate constant of 0.3163 day−1 and half-life of 2.19 days. The results obtained demonstrated the potential of organic wastes for oil bioremediation in the order BSG > BS > SMC.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the University of Malaya IPPP Grant PS 244/2008C. Also, we would like to thank the managements of Carlsberg Brewery for providing brewery spent grain and Gano farm for the provision of spent mushroom compost.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Peter O. Abioye & P. Agamuthu

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    A. Abdul Aziz

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  1. Peter O. Abioye
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  2. A. Abdul Aziz
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  3. P. Agamuthu
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Correspondence to Peter O. Abioye.

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Abioye, P.O., Abdul Aziz, A. & Agamuthu, P. Enhanced Biodegradation of Used Engine Oil in Soil Amended with Organic Wastes. Water Air Soil Pollut 209, 173–179 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0189-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0189-3

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