Petroleum: From Basic Features to Hydrocarbons Bioremediation in Oceans

Abstract

This review provides a general overview of petroleum characteristics and bioremediation strategies applications in oceanic environments contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons during exploration and transportation processes offshore. The vast oil reserves in the offshore fields have been explored for the production of light and heavy oil. The hydrocarbons exhibit very different physicochemical characteristics including those of hydrophobicity, molecular weight, melting and boiling points, toxicity and recalcitrance. This review is to highlight the basic oil characteristics, and to reveal the manner in which accidents can occur resulting in oil spills in the sea. We focus on hydrocarbon degradation through the application of bioremediation techniques, because this is considered more advantageous economically compared with the physical or chemical remediation techniques, as well as being more effective in contaminant removal. This study provides knowledge about strategies that can be applied in accidents involving oil spill on the ocean and thus boosts oil spill cleanup technology and lowers the environmental risks of offshore management of activities with petroleum.

Exploiting hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria for reclamation of petroleum hydrocarbon polluted sites

“…Marine aquatic environment often favors the formation of oil-water emulsion commonly called 'mousse'. Weathering of petroleum hydrocarbons in aquatic environment includes processes such as spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion, and emulsification (Rodriques & Totola, 2015). Heavy molecular fraction of petroleum hydrocarbon generally sinks to the bottom of water bodies.…”

“…Heavy molecular fraction of petroleum hydrocarbon generally sinks to the bottom of water bodies. The movement of petroleum hydrocarbons from water bodies to coastal regions may expand the area under pollution (Rodriques & Totola, 2015).…”

Strategy to improve crude oil biodegradation in oligotrophic aquatic environments: W/O/W fertilized emulsions and hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria

“…As the smaller droplets coalesce, the higher variability resulted in the formation of oil droplets of higher dimension. The hypothetical loss of both elements was estimated based on the amount of the elements that would be removed with sample collection (i.e., 50% in the first sampling, 75% in the second sampling, 87.5% in the third sampling, and so on, which is equivalent to the equation of exponential saturation 100 % [1 − e −t ln (2) ], where t is the time in days), if the phosphorous and nitrogen were to suffer dispersion into the water column Oil droplets dispersed in an aqueous continuous phase tend to coalesce [54], but this phenomenon may be reduced by the presence of the emulsifiers and NaCl in the continuous phase [55]. In our work, the use of seawater to prepare the W/O/W emulsion may have contributed to increase the stability of the fertilized water-containing oil droplets.…”

“…Seawater and other aquatic environments are subject to contamination by various chemicals used by modern societies. Among them, one of the most prominent and dangerous contaminants is petroleum hydrocarbons [1][2][3]. Accidents involving oil spillage in aquatic environments result in both immediate and chronic disturbances to the local biota, due to toxicity and recalcitrance of many hydrocarbons, along with their interaction with all lifeforms [3][4][5].…”

Detection of Horizontal Transfer of Housekeeping and Hydrocarbons Catabolism Genes in Bacterial Genus with Potential to Application in Bioremediation Process

“…Many hydrocarbons are very hydrophobic and their persistence within the ecosystem is due largely to their hydrophobicity and low water solubility [18]. Exposure of aquatic habitats and organisms to whole oil and toxic components causes acute mortality and chronic effects that can be felt during several years [16] [19] [20].…”