Microbiology Research Journal International

The wide spread use of petroleum products leads to contamination of soil and aquatic environments, thereby posing a serious threat to all life forms including humans. Therefore, isolation of oil-degrading microorganisms and optimizing conditions for biodegradation process are important. Thus, this study was aimed at isolating and characterizing hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria from hydrocarbon contaminated soil in Bwari area council, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria, using three different petroleum products (petrol, kerosene and diesel) thereby checking their catabolic capacities on the products. Enrichment culture technique (using mineral salt medium; MSA) was employed to obtain fourteen (14) bacterial isolates capable of utilizing the petroleum products. The ability to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons is not restricted to a few microbial genera; a diverse group of bacteria and fungi have been shown to have this ability. The most important (based on frequency of isolation) genera of hydrocarbon utilizers in environments were Pseudomons spp. 21.43%, Bacillus spp. 21.43%, Acinetobacter spp. 7.14%, Corynebacterium spp. 7.14%, Staphylococci spp. 7.14%, Citobacter spp. 14.29%, Aeromonas spp. 14.29%, Flavobacterium spp. 7.14%. The hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria count ranged from 1.8 ×10⁴ to 1.5 ×10⁸ cfu/ml showing a high range of different bacteria found in polluted soil due to formation of consortia to degrade the substrates. The highest growth was found in petrol sample (PS) followed by kerosene sample (KS) and then diesel sample (DS), implying the ability of these organisms to rapidly utilize lower molecular and low density hydrocarbon than higher ones. Applications of this adaptation of microorganisms have been seen in bioremediation, oil recovery, indicators of environmental pollution of petroleum hydrocarbons, etc which are all environmental friendly and cost effective.