Degradation of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons by marine bacteria.

Abstract

By the use of marine petroleum-degrading bacteria Flavobacterium sp. and Corynebacterium sp., the degradation rates of n-hexadecane (n-C16) and α-methylnaphthalene (α-MN) as representa-tives of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, respectively, were quantitatively examined through the analyses of gas-liquid chromatography. These two strains had no capability of degradation of α-MN even at the substrate concentration as low as 0.25ml/l, in spite of utilizing sufficiently n-C16 substrate as sole energy source of carbon. Such a poor ability of α-MN degradation, however, was improved, to some extent, in the presence of co-substrate, n-C16, only for Corynebacterium sp. Moreover, the cooxidation mechanism brought about a remarkable advance in n-C16 degradation at its higher ranges of initial concentrations, In addition, it may be plausible that the decomposi-tion of cetyl alcohol rather than that of palmitic acid is rate determining step for n-C18 degradation in the system studied.