International Journal of Waste Resources

Biodegradation of Msunduzi river lubricant oil spillage by mutagenized indigenous microalgae Scenedesmus vacuolatus

World Congress on Sustainable Waste Management

June 21, 2023 | Webinar

Stella B Eregie

University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Int J Waste Resour

Abstract:

Lubricant oil spills in the environment have become inevitable due to massive use of lubricant oil products. Incidence of lubricant oil spills in the water bodies are the most frequent because lubricant oil products are mostly transported across water bodies. Lubricant oil spill on the water surface is detrimental to most of the aquatic organisms plants and animals because the oil, and its HC contaminants form an oily layer on the surface of the water, which prevents adequate oxygen and sunlight from penetrating the water surface, which in turn inhibit respiration activities of aquatic organisms, leading to the suffocation of fishes. As a result, the search for microorganisms with multidegradative abilities which can be used to treat oil spills is imperative and desirable. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the efficiency of mutagenized Scenedesmus vacuolatus for its ability to biodegrade Msunduzi lubricant oil spillage. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GCMS) was used to assess the degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and intracellular metabolites by mutagenized S. vacuolatus while, the microalgae dehydrogenase activity (DHA) was measured in terms of triphenyl formazan (TPF). A one-sample T-test with a significance of p < 0.05 was used to evaluate the data from DHA and GCMS. The result obtained showed that the mutagenized S. vacuolatus was able to biodegrade lubricant oil spill hydrocarbon pollutants after five weeks. The highest TPF produced by mutagenized S. vacuolatus after five weeks was 1.829 mg/mL ± 0.022. The highest TPH degradation by mutagenized S. vacuolatus after five weeks was 95, 70% ± 0.003. Alcohols, fatty acids, and carboxylic acids were the most pronounced extracellular and intracellular metabolites obtained. The results indicate the ability of mutagenized S. vacuolatus to degrade the spilled oil pollutants, therefore, can be used to enhance the bioremediation of oil spills.

Biography :

Stella Eregie is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Life Sciences, Department of Microbiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She is one of the very few enthusiasts that is currently working in the area of biodegradation (bioremediation) of industrial processed lubricant oil wastes; environmental lubricant oil spill waste; isolation and characterization of indigenous microorganisms native to oil wastes, in which there are few skilled personnel in South Africa. She has specialized expertise in Microbial Biotechnology/Environmental microbiology/industrial biotechnology which uses microorganism (microalgae) to treat various types of industrial processed lubricant oil waste and oil spill waste.