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Uncovering Anaerobic Hydrocarbon Biodegradation Pathways in Oil Sands Tailings from Two Different Tailings Ponds via Metabolite and Functional Gene Analyses

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Abstract

Oil sands tailings, a slurry of alkaline water, silt, clay, unrecovered bitumen, and residual hydrocarbons generated during bitumen extraction, are contained in ponds. Indigenous microbes metabolize hydrocarbons and emit greenhouse gases from the tailings. Metabolism of hydrocarbons in tailings ponds of two operators, namely, Canadian Natural Upgrading Limited (CNUL) and Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), has not been comprehensively investigated. Previous reports have revealed sequential and preferential hydrocarbon degradation of alkanes in primary cultures established from CNUL and CNRL tailings amended separately with mixtures of hydrocarbons (n-alkanes, iso-alkanes, paraffinic solvent, or naphtha). In this study, activation pathway of hydrocarbon biodegradation in these primary cultures was investigated. The functional gene analysis revealed that fumarate addition was potentially the primary activation pathway of alkanes in all cultures. However, the metabolite analysis only detected transient succinylated 2-methylpentane and 2-methylbutane metabolites during initial methanogenic biodegradation of iso-alkanes and paraffinic solvent in all CNUL and CNRL cultures amended with iso-alkanes and paraffinic solvent. Under sulfidogenic conditions (prepared only with CNUL tailings amended with iso-alkanes), succinylated 2-methylpentane persisted throughout incubation period of ~ 1100 days, implying dead-end nature of the metabolite. Though no metabolite was detected in n-alkanes- and naphtha-amended cultures during incubation, assA/masD genes related to Peptococcaceae were amplified in all CNUL and CNRL primary cultures. The findings of this present study suggest that microbial communities in different tailings ponds can biodegrade hydrocarbons through fumarate addition as activation pathway under methanogenic and sulfidogenic conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Shell CNUL Sands Inc. for providing oil sands tailings samples.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative (TS), NSERC Discovery Grant (TS), and Canada Foundation for Innovation (TS). We also acknowledge a Ph.D. scholarship award (King’s Scholarship) and fellowship to MFMS from the Public Service Department of Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Perlis, respectively.

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  1. Mohd Faidz Mohamad Shahimin

    Present address: Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Aras 2, Blok S2, UniCITI Alam Campus, 02100, Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia

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  1. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2G7, Canada

    Mohd Faidz Mohamad Shahimin & Tariq Siddique

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Conceptualization: TS and MFMS, data curation: MFMS, formal analysis: MFMS, funding acquisition: TS, investigation: MFMS, methodology: MFMS, project administration: MFMS, resources: TS, supervision: TS, validation: TS, writing original draft: MFMS, and review and editing: MFMS and TS.

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Correspondence to Mohd Faidz Mohamad Shahimin.

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Mohamad Shahimin, M.F., Siddique, T. Uncovering Anaerobic Hydrocarbon Biodegradation Pathways in Oil Sands Tailings from Two Different Tailings Ponds via Metabolite and Functional Gene Analyses. Appl Biochem Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-024-04855-0

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