This study investigates the hydrocarbon degradation potentials of some bacteria isolated from spent
lubrication oil on contaminated soil. Cleaning up petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites has been a major
challenge. This has led to the exploration of many approaches to affect the cleanup of the polluted soils. A total of
sixteen hydrocarbon degrading bacteria species were isolated from spent lubricating oil contaminated soil. The
predominant species belonged to the genera
Pseudomonas
and
Enterobacter
. Three strains namely
Nocardia
sp.,
Pseudomonas sp and
Bacillus
sp showed the highest potential for hydrocarbon utilization. Their ability to degrade
both the aliphatic (n-alkanes) and Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) components of the spent lubricating oil in MSM
was investigated after 21days of biodegradation studies using gas chromatographic (GC) techniques. Over 98% of the
n-alkane and PAHs fraction of the spent lubricating oil supplied at 1.0%vv
-1 concentration were degraded by the three
strains.
Nocardia sp showed the highest percentage of degradation of about 99%. This study has shown that resident
bacteria strains in lubricating oil contaminated soils have potential application in the bioremediation of oil polluted
sites and enhance the possibility of developing models and strategies for removing hydrocarbon pollutants from the
environment.
