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Bioremediation of petroleum refinery wastewater using Bacillus subtilis IH-1 and assessment of its toxicity

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Abstract

Environmental contamination from petroleum refinery operations has increased due to the rapid population growth and modernization of society, necessitating urgent repair. Microbial remediation of petroleum wastewater by prominent bacterial cultures holds promise in circumventing the issue of petroleum-related pollution. Herein, the bacterial culture was isolated from petroleum-contaminated sludge samples for the valorization of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and biodegradation of petroleum wastewater samples. The bacterial strain was screened and identified as Bacillus subtilis IH-1. After six days of incubation, the bacteria had degraded 25.9% of phenanthrene and 20.3% of naphthalene. The treatment of wastewater samples was assessed using physico-chemical and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, which revealed that the level of pollutants was elevated and above the allowed limits. Following bacterial degradation, the reduction in pollution parameters viz. EC (82.7%), BOD (87.0%), COD (80.0%), total phenols (96.3%), oil and grease (79.7%), TKN (68.8%), TOC (96.3%) and TPH (52.4%) were observed. The reduction in pH and heavy metals were also observed after bacterial treatment. V. mungo was used in the phytotoxicity test, which revealed at 50% wastewater concentration the reduction in biomass (30.3%), root length (87.7%), shoot length (93.9%), and seed germination (30.0%) was observed in comparison to control. When A. cepa root tips immersed in varying concentrations of wastewater samples, the mitotic index significantly decreased, suggesting the induction of cytotoxicity. However, following the bacterial treatment, there was a noticeable decrease in phytotoxicity and cytotoxicity. The bacterial culture produces lignin peroxidase enzyme and has the potential to degrade the toxic pollutants of petroleum wastewater. Therefore the bacterium may be immobilised or directly used at reactor scale or pilot scale study to benefit the industry and environmental safety.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for providing the resources necessary for the research and literature review. The authors also extend their appreciation to King Saud University for funding this work through research supporting project (RSP2024R376), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 302017, India

    Izharul Haq

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India

    Izharul Haq & Ajay S. Kalamdhad

  3. Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Abdul Malik

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  1. Izharul Haq
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  2. Ajay S. Kalamdhad
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  3. Abdul Malik
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IH: Investigation, Data curation, Writing-Original draft preparation, Visualization, Investigation, Software, Validation. AK: Supervision, Reviewing, Editing, Conceptualization, Methodology, Project administration and Resources. AM: Editing, Reviewing, Software, Visualization, Project administration and Resources.

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Haq, I., Kalamdhad, A.S. & Malik, A. Bioremediation of petroleum refinery wastewater using Bacillus subtilis IH-1 and assessment of its toxicity. Arch Microbiol 206, 296 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-04027-y

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