Bioremediation of heavy metals in petroleum sludge through bacterial mixtures

Abstract

The petroleum drilling process has a potential to produce heavy metal waste into the environment. In this research, the ex-situ called bioremediation (utilized the metabolic of bacteria) has been explored to address this problem. Azotobacter bacteria used to degrade heavy metals which are Fe(III), Zn(II), and Cr(VI). The sludge was mixed with water in the ratio of 1:4 which observed every 3 days for 15 days. This process conducted in a reactor with the pH condition 7. The experimental results showed a decrease in the concentration of heavy metal around 40% in average which shows the effectiveness of this method.