Evaluation of Black Oil Biodegradation by a Consortium of Indigenous Bacillus cereus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

Black oil is a refined oil product that poses a significant environmental risk. It contains complex multi-hydrocarbons that decompose slowly, so black oil remains in the environment for a long time, causing various toxic effects. This study focuses on isolating indigenous bacteria, determining their potential for degrading black oil, and then evaluating the efficiency of bacterial consortium in biodegrading black oil. Three black oil-degrading bacteria were isolated, molecularly identified by 16s rDNA sequencing, and recorded in the NCBI GenBank nucleotide sequence database as Bacillus cereus strain ZG.S6, Bacillus cereus strain ZG.S12, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain ZG.S11. Based on the measurement of optical density and chromatogram analysis, B. cereus strain ZG.S6, B. cereus strain ZG.S12, and P. aeruginosa strain ZG.S11 degrade black oil efficiently by reducing the number of their compounds to 10, 16, and 14, respectively. The results were compared to the complex combination of black oil (control group), which consists of 25 compounds of aliphatic and aromatic substances. The bacterial consortium demonstrated compatibility with each other, allowing them to degrade black oil more efficiently than individual strains, reducing its compounds to 7. Consequently, the consortium is a promising candidate for black oil bioremediation.