Microbiological and physicochemical studies of spent lubricating oil contaminated soil amended with wood ash

Abstract

Microbiological and physicochemical studies of spent lubricating oil contaminated soil amended with wood ash (10% amendment level) were carried out for a period of 56 days. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of wood ash in conditioning spent lubricating oil contaminated soil. Serial dilution and pour plate methods were used in enumerating microbial growth. The pH, nitrate, moisture, phosphorus, organic matter content were also determined. The heterotrophic bacteria count ranged from 1.0×10 4 to 2.1×10 4 cfu/g for the oil free soil (OFS), 1.3×10 4 to 2.7×10 4 cfu/g for the polluted control soil (PCS) and 2.1×10 4 to 2.3×10 4 cfu/g for the amended soil (AS) while the fungal count ranged from 4.0×10 3 to 4.7×10 4 cfu/g for OFS, 4.0×10 3 to 8.2×10 4 cfu/g for PCS and 4.0×10 3 to 10.8×10 4 cfu/g for AS. Higher microbial counts were found on the PCS and AS compared to the OFS. There were no significant differences at 5% probability level between the treatments. The organisms isolated were species of Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium and Saccharomyces. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the moisture content, nitrate, organic matter content and electrical conductivity. However, there were significant differences in the pH, organic carbon and phosphorus contents of the soil samples at 5% probability level. The results obtained in this study demonstrate the potential of wood ash to considerably increase the organic carbon, phosphorus and pH of the soil to slightly alkaline condition which favours the biodegradation of the spent lubricating oil contaminated soil.

Effects of cadmium and lead on the biodegradation of diesel-contaminated soil

“…The reduction in heavy metals as shown in Table 3 could be due to sorption of heavy metals by soil microorganisms basically bacteria and fungi in the formation of oxides, hydroxides, carbonates, exchangeable cations, and or bound to organic matter in the soil [32]. A corresponding significant decrease in the heavy metals concentration with Eudrilus eugeniae after 30, 60 and 90 days was reported by Ekperusi and Aigbodion [30].…”