Enhanced crude oil degradation by remodeling of crude oil-contaminated soil microbial community structure using sodium alginate/graphene oxide/Bacillus C5 immobilized pellets

Environ Res. 2023 Apr 15:223:115465. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115465. Epub 2023 Feb 10.

Abstract

Bioaugmentation (BA) of oil-contaminated soil by immobilized microorganisms is considered to be a promising technology. However, available high-efficiency microbial agents remain very limited. Therefore, we prepared a SA/GO/C5 immobilized gel pellets by embedding the highly efficient crude oil degrading bacteria Bacillus C5 in the SA/GO composite material. The optimum preparation conditions of SA/GO/C5 immobilized gel pellets were: SA 3.0%, GO 25.0 μg/mL, embedding amount of C5 6%, water bath temperature of 50°C, CaCl2 solution concentration 3% and cross-linking time 20 h. BA experiments were carried out on crude oil contaminated soil to explore the removal effect of SA/GO/C5 immobilized pellets. The results showed that the SA/GO/C5 pellets exhibited excellent mechanical strength and specific surface area, which facilitated the attachment and growth of the Bacillus C5. Compared with free bacteria C5, the addition of SA/GO/C5 significantly promoted the removal of crude oil in soil, reaching 64.92% after 30 d, which was 2.1 times the removal rate of C5. The addition of SA/GO/C5 promoted the abundance of soil exogenous Bacillus C5 and indigenous crude oil degrading bacteria Alcanivorax and Marinobacter. In addition, the enrichment of hydrocarbon degradation-related functional abundance was predicted by PICRUSt2 in the SA/GO/C5 treatment group. This study demonstrated that SA/GO/C5 is an effective method for remediating crude oil-contaminated soil, providing a basis and option for immobilized microorganisms bioaugmentation to remediate organic contaminated soil.

Keywords: Bioaugmentation; Graphene oxide; Immobilized; Microbial community; Oil-contaminated soil; Sodium alginate.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacillus* / metabolism
  • Bacteria / metabolism
  • Biodegradation, Environmental
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Microbiota*
  • Petroleum* / metabolism
  • Soil / chemistry
  • Soil Microbiology
  • Soil Pollutants* / analysis

Substances

  • graphene oxide
  • Petroleum
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Soil Pollutants
  • Soil