Effects of Bacillus subtilis O9 biosurfactant on the bioremediation of crude oil-polluted soils

Abstract

The application of a surfactant from Bacillus subtilis O9 (Bs) on the bioremediation of soils polluted with crude oil was assayed in soil microcosms under laboratory conditions. Three concentrations of biosurfactant were assayed (1.9, 19.5, and 39 mg kg(-1) soil). Microcosms without biosurfactant were prepared as controls. During the experiment, the crude oil-degrading bacterial population, the aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons were monitored in each microcosm. The results indicated that applying Bs did not negatively affect the hydrocarbon-degrading microbial population Concentrations of 19 and 19.5mg (Bs) per kilogram of soil stimulated the growth of the population involved in the crude oil degradation, and accelerated the biodegradation of the aliphatic hydrocarbons. However, none of the assayed Bs concentrations stimulated aromatic hydrocarbon degradation.

Evaluation of Screening Methods for the Isolation of Biosurfactant Producing Marine Bacteria

“…Biosurfactants influence these processes because of their efficacy as dispersion and remediation agents and their environmentally friendly characteristics such as low toxicity and high biodegradability [5][6][7][8][9]. There are many reports describing the effect of exogenously added microbial biosurfactants in enhancing the bioremediation of crude oil-polluted soils by indigenous microbes [10][11][12] and how to purify and detect these biosurfactants [13][14][15]. Biosurfactants are potential antimicrobial agents to specific microbes and thus can be exploited for its antimicrobial applications against plant, animal and human microbial pathogens [1].…”

Biodegradation of benzene by pure and mixed cultures of Bacillus spp.

“…Whilst Pseudomonas strains have many applications in BTEX bioremediation, other Bacillus strains have been studied in petroleum bioremediation, such as Bacillus subtilis (Mulligan et al 2001;Medina-Moreno et al 2005;Toledo et al 2008); B. subtilis O9 (Cubitto et al 2004); B. subtilis DM-04 strain (Das and Mukherjee 2007); B. subtilis IFO3335 strain (Yasuda et al 2003);B. subtilis ATCC 21332 (Whang et al 2008); B. stearothermophilus (Natarajan et al 1994);B.…”

Surfactina: propriedades químicas, tecnológicas e funcionais para aplicações em alimentos

“…Surfactantes produzidos por diferentes linhagens de Bacillus subtilis, além de serem obtidos por processos menos agressivos sob o ponto de vista ambiental, apresentaram efeitos significativos na biodegradação de hidrocarbonetos alifáticos e aromáticos [18][19][20] , remoção de óleo de areia contaminada 19,21 , formação de emulsões estáveis em óleo 21 , bem como na degradação do pesticida endosulfan 22 e biorremediação de solos altamente contaminados por zinco e cádmio 23 .…”