Biodegradation studies petroleum

To better understand the chemical changes occurring during the biodegradation of petroleum, a study with a domestic crude oil from South Louisiana (18) was conducted in which the oil-water system was inoculated with a mixed bacterial culture from Chesapeake Bay (9-14). 

American Petroleum Institute, 1987, Field Study of Enhanced Subsurface Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons Using Hydrogen Peroxide as an Oxygen Source. American Petroleum Institute, Publication No. 4448, Washington, D.C., 76 pp. 

Some of the first studies on the biodegradation of sulfur compounds focused on their fate and removal from oil-contaminated environments. Another major area of study is the microbial process of "biodesulfurization" which has been suggested as a means of selectively removing sulfur compounds from petroleum prior to refining. Information gathered from these two areas of research provide the basis of the present knowledge of metabolism of organosulfur compounds in petroleum. This information is reviewed with emphasis on the metabolism of dibenzothiophenes and n-alkyl tetrahydrothiophenes (n-alkyl thiolanes). 

Petroleum contains a wide variety of OSC (13-17). However, in comparison to the amount of knowledge about the microbial metabolism of hydrocarbons, much less is known about the metabolism of OSC found in petroleum. These investigations have been hampered by the commercial unavailability of most of the sulfur compounds of interest. Because only a small number of OSC are available to workers studying microbial metabolism, few biodegradation pathways have been elucidated. 

The rise in the production and use of synthetic polymers worldwide was recently estimated at around 140 million tonnes per year, with most of these being petroleum-based and causing an increasing problem both as environmental pollutants and in the pressure they exert as landfill components. Biodegradation and biodeterioration of these materials can play an important role in microbial ecology and nutrient cycling in the environment. Compared to the importance of these materials in the environment, there have been relatively few studies on the colonization. 

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