Isolation and Identification of Current Biosurfactant‐Producing Microbacterium maritypicum ABR5 as a Candidate for Oily Sludge Recovery

Abstract

AbstractBiosurfactants have a wide range of applications in different areas, including petroleum microbiology and environmental biotechnology. In this study, removing and recovering oil from oily sludge using microbactan‐producing bacteria have been investigated. The best biosurfactant‐producing isolate was obtained from a petroleum reservoir and was identified by 16S rDNA analysis as Microbacterium maritypicum ABR5. Its 16S rDNA sequence was deposited in GenBank, NCBI under the accession number MK100468. Chemical analysis using thin‐layer chromatography and Fourier Transform Infrared confirmed that the produced biosurfactant was glycolipoprotein. The strain reduced surface tension from 72 to 34.6 mN m−1. The addition of 5 mg L ZnO nanoparticles to the biosurfactant‐producing medium showed no bacterial toxicity effect and raised the emulsification index to 25.7%. Higher concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles, such as 10 and 100 mg L, decreased the bacterial growth rate and biosurfactant production. The mixing of M. maritypicum ABR5 culture medium and oily sludge increased the oil recovery from oily sludge by up to 70% after 5 days of incubation. This is the first report of biosurfactant production by a newly identified strain, M. maritypicum ABR5, isolated from a petroleum reservoir. We proposed that the isolated biosurfactant‐producing strain could be considered an economical asset for oil recovery from oily sludge in the petroleum industry and environmental biotechnology.