Isolation and characterization of an n-hexadecane degrading Acinetobacter baumannii KSS1060 from a petrochemical wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

Hydrocarbons are widespread in the environment, but because of the massive utilization of petroleum products, they are nowadays strongly involved in environmental pollution. Bioremediation is the obliging technology for the treatment of hydrocarbon-contaminated sites. Therefore, to investigate the potential of petrochemical hydrocarbon (HC)-degrading indigenous microorganisms in wastewater samples collected from Fajr petrochemical wastewater treatment plants, a strain of Acinetobacter baumannii was isolated from this hydrocarbon-contaminated wastewater and examined for its ability to utilize hexadecane. This strain was capable to grow on n-hexadecane as the sole source of carbon and energy. The ability of the isolate to degrade n-hexadecane was assessed by growth assays and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis. Using GC analysis, it was shown that the strain KSS1060 was able to degrade 62 % of n-hexadecane within 6 days, which mostly (51.6 %) occurred within the first 24 h. Identification of this hexadecane-degrader bacterium was carried out using 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Additionally, characterization of chemical composition of wastewater samples by the use of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis indicated the presence of Hexanal, Benzene methanol, Indanol, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid diethyl ester, diisobutyl phthalate, and Phenol,4,4′-(1-methylethylidene) in the major constituents of wastewater. In conclusion, this study can focus on more cost-efficient applications of native bacterial strains for the large-scale biodegradation of wastewater samples from petrochemical plant in industry, where it causes disturbing problems due to its harmful effects on different organisms and human beings.