Biodegradation of the Most Heavier Fraction of Crude Oil, Asphaltene, by Bacillus toyonensis BCT-7112

Authors

1 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Islamic Azad University-Central Tehran Branch

3 Department of Microbiology, Damghan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Damghan, Iran

Abstract

There have been few records on microorganisms with the ability to survive and utilizehigh concentrations of heavy fractions of crude oil like asphaltene. These organisms are applicable in different aspects of petroleum industry from extraction to refining and environmental pollution treatment. To isolate such indigenous bacteria, a highly viscouscrude oil was selected and its asphaltene extracted. Isolation, enrichment, and purification of the bacterium were done in ISO 9439 medium at room temperature and 45°C as well. Studying morphological characteristics, biochemical and molecular tests were performed to identify isolated bacteria. The 16S rRNA gene sequence was subjected. To study the biodegradation of asphaltene, isolated bacteria were cultured in ISO 9439 medium for 2, 20 and 50 d at 25°C and 45°C.The efficiency of asphaltene degradationwas evaluated by FT-IR spectroscopy analysis. The bacterial species, which could use asphaltene as the sole carbon and energy source, were selected. Among all, Bacillus toyonensis BCT-7112 had the most degrading ability on asphaltene. The percentage of asphaltene degradation after 50 d of incubation at 25°C was 64.8%, and it was 60% at 45°C. Based on the FT-IR analysis, the isolate had the most biodegrading effect on Aldehyde compounds in comparison with other asphaltene ingredients. This amount of degradation is the most among the present records in literature.

Keywords

References

  1. Buch L., Groenzin H., Buenrostro-Gonzalez E., Andersen S.I., Lira-Galeana C., Mullins O.C., 2003. Molecular size of asphaltene fractions obtained from residuum hydrotreatment. Fuel. 82, 1075-1084.
  2. Groenzin H., Mullins O.C., 2000. Molecular size and structure of asphaltenes from various sources. Energy Fuels. 14, 677-684.
  3. Miller J., Fisher R., Thiyagarajan P., Winans R., Hunt J., 1998. Subfractionation and characterization of Mayan asphaltene. Energy Fuels. 12, 1290-1298.
  4. Murgich J., Abanero J.A. & Strausz O.P., 1999. Molecular recognition in aggregates formed by asphaltene and resin molecules from the Athabasca oil sand. Energy Fuels. 13, 278-286.
  5. Strausz O.P., Mojelsky T.W., Faraji F., Lown E.M., Peng P.a., 1999. Additional structural details on Athabasca asphaltene and their ramifications. Energy Fuels. 13, 207-227.
  6. Morales M., Ayala M., Vazquez-Duhalt R., Le Borgne S., 2010. Application of Microorganisms to the Processing and Upgrading of Crude Oil and Fractions. In Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology, ed. K. Timmis, 2767-2785. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  7. Hong E., Watkinson P., 2004. A study of asphaltene solubility and precipitation. Fuel. 83, 1881-1887.
  8. Ogbo E.M. Okhuoya J.A., 2008. Biodegradation of aliphatic, aromatic, resinic and asphaltic fractions of crude oil contaminated soils by Pleurotus tuber-regium Fr. Singer-a white rot fungus. Afr J Biotechnol. 7, 4291-4297.
  9. Kaminski T.J., Fogler H.S., Wolf N., Wattana P., Mairal A., 2000. Classification of asphaltenes via fractionation and the effect of heteroatom content on dissolution kinetics. Energy Fuels. 14, 25-30.
  10. Wu J., Prausnitz J.M., Firoozabadi A., 2000. Molecular thermodynamics of asphaltene precipitation in reservoir fluids. AIChE journal. 46, 197-209.
  11. Margesin R., Schinner F., 2001. Biodegradation and bioremediation of hydrocarbons in extreme environments. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 56, 650-663.
  12. Leahy J.G., Colwell R.R., 1990. Microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the environment. Microbiol Rev. 54, 305-315.
  13. Vazquez, D. & G. Mansoori., 2000. Identification and measurement of petroleum precipitates. J Pet Sci. Eng. 26, 49-55.
  14. Pan H., Firoozabadi A., 2000. Thermodynamic micellization model for asphaltene precipitation from reservoir crudes at high pressures and temperatures. SPE Prod Facil. 15, 58-65.
  15. Pineda-Flores G., Mesta-Howard A.M., 2001. Petroleum asphaltenes: generated problematic and possible biodegradation mechanisms. Rev Latinoam Microbiol Mex. 43, 143-150.
  16. Towler B.F., Rebbapragada S., 2004. Mitigation of paraffin wax deposition in cretaceous crude oils of Wyoming. J Pet Sci Eng. 45, 11-19.
  17. Sanjay M., Simanta B., Kulwant S., 1995. Paraffin problems in crude oil production and transportation: a review SPE Prod Facil. 10, 50-54.
  18. Venkateswaran K., Hoaki T., Kato M., & Maruyama T., 1995. Microbial degradation of resins fractionated from Arabian light crude oil. Can J microbiol. 41, 418-424.
  19. Thouand G., Bauda P., Oudot J., Kirsch G., Sutton C., Vidalie J., 1999. Laboratory evaluation of crude oil biodegradation with commercial or natural microbial inocula. Can J microbiol. 45, 106-115.
  20. Pineda-Flores G., Boll-Argüello G., Lira-Galeana C., Mesta-Howard A. M., 2004. A microbial consortium isolated from a crude oil sample that uses asphaltenes as a carbon and energy source. Biodegradation. 15, 145-151.
  21. Jahromi H., Fazaelipoor M., Ayatollahi S., Niazi A., 2014. Asphaltenes biodegradation under shaking and static conditions. Fuel. 117, 230-235.
  22. Lavania M., Cheema S., Sarma P.M., Mandal A.K., Lal B., 2012. Biodegradation of asphalt by Garciaella petrolearia TERIG02 for viscosity reduction of heavy oil. Biodegr. 23, 15-24.
  23. Ali L.H., Al-Ghannam K.A., 1981. Investigations into asphaltenes in heavy crude oils. I. Effect of temperature on precipitation by alkane solvents. Fuel. 60, 1043-1046.
  24. Holmes B., Willcox W., Lapage S., 1978. Identification of Enterobacteriaceae by the API 20E system. J Clin Patho. 31, 22-30.
  25. Barbosa T.M., Serra C.R., La Ragione R.M., Woodward M.J., Henriques A.O., 2005. Screening for Bacillus isolates in the broiler gastrointestinal tract. Appl Environ Microbiol. 71, 968-978.
  26. Altschul S.F., Madden T.L., Schäffer A.A., Zhang J., Zhang Z., Miller W., Lipman D.J., 1997. Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. Nucleic acids Res. 25, 3389-3402.
  27. DeSantis T., Dubosarskiy I., Murray S., Andersen G. L., 2003. Comprehensive aligned sequence construction for automated design of effective probes (CASCADE-P) using 16S rDNA. Bioinform. 19, 1461-1468.
  28. Weisburg W.G., Barns S.M., Pelletier D.A., Lane D. J., 1991. 16S ribosomal DNA amplification for phylogenetic study. J bacteriol. 173, 697-703.
  29. Tavassoli T., Mousavi S., Shojaosadati S., Salehizadeh H., 2012. Asphaltene biodegradation using microorganisms isolated from oil samples. Fuel. 93, 142-148.
Journal of Chemical Health Risks

Volume 8, Issue 1
Spring 2018

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 21 April 2018
  • Revise Date: 06 July 2020
  • Accept Date: 29 October 2018

Share

How to cite

Statistics