Biosurfactant production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa DSVP20 isolated from petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil and its physicochemical characterization

Journal Article

2015

Al-Waili, Deepak Sharma & Mohammad Javed Ansari & Ahmad Al-Ghamdi & Nuru Adgaba & Khalid Ali Khan & Vikas Pruthi & Noori . 2015

Environmental pollution caused by fossil fuel is an issue of the

greatest importance regarding both economic growth and ecological

restoration. Among fossil fuels, oil (petroleum hydrocarbon)

is the principle source of energy, and it is part of major

global environmental pollutants. Significant amounts of

hydrocarbons from petroleum products contaminate

groundwater and soil due to leaks and spills from petroleum

refinery processes, oil storage tanks, and transportation

(Su et al. 2011). Hydrocarbon disposal often leads to

release of hydrocarbon pollutants into the environment that

bring a serious ecological problems. These petroleum pollutants

are both toxic to biological components of the

environment and carcinogenic (Okoh 2006; Okoh and

Trejo-Hernandez 2006; Obayori 2009).

Bioremediation is a process used for the degradation

of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in oilcontaminated

water and soil due to its environmental

and economic advantages over other physicochemical

remediation methods (Silva et al. 2014). So far, the

main approach for enhancing the bioavailability of

HOCs is the use of synthetic or natural surfactants

(Walters and Aitken 2001; Mulligan 2005; Zhu and

Aitken 2010), which promote the solubility of HOCs and

improve the biodegradation process (Zheng et al. 2012).

• Volume Number: 22
• Issue Number: 22
• Magazine \ Newspaper: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
• Pages: 17636–17643