Assessment of Petrol and Petroleum Derivatives Degradation by Aspergillus Niger

Abstract

A major environmental problem today is hydrocarbon contamination resulting from the petrochemical industry. Accidental release of petroleum commodities are of major concern in the environment. A hydrocarbon component belongs to the family of carcinogens and neurotoxin organic pollutants. Biodegradation refers to total mineralization of organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and cell protein or transformation of complex organic contaminants to other simpler organic compounds by biological agents like microorganisms. In this work suitable degrading medium i.e., Bushnell Hass media is selected and Aspergillus niger, a fungi is used as degrading microorganism. A.niger is grown at different concentrations 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% & 10% of petrol sample and checked for the growth resistance in medium. Biodegradation of the petrol sample is carried out and is confirmed with change in OD, pH and GC analysis. There is reduction in the level of hydrocarbons showed in GC analysis of the sample when compared to standard petrol resulting in the breakdown of long chain hydrocarbons. Research was extended on Degradation studies about commercial polythene carry bags of low density polyethylene (LDPE) over a period of four weeks under laboratory conditions by using Aspergillus niger as degrading microorganism. SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) analysis confirmed the degradation by revealing the presence of pores. The size of the pores increased from nano scale to micro scale thereby showing porosity and fragility of the fungal degraded polythene surface.