Kerosene bacteria

The consumables represent the essential food or nutritional reqirirements. Conventionally they include sugars, starches, proteins, vitamins, trace elements, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen but bacteria are probably the most omnivorous of all living organisms and to the above list may be added plastic, mbber, kerosene, naphthalene, phenol and cement. One is left feeling that there is no substance which is immune to microbial... 

Microorganisms readily able to degrade hydrocarbons were found in the Neuse River estuary in North Carolina. Although the estuary was relatively free of hydrocarbon contamination, 63% of the bacteria and 71% of the fungi isolated from surface water samples were able to utilize kerosene as the sole carbon source (Buckley et al. 1976). Weathered kerosene (volatile components were allowed to escape prior to testing) was spiked with four marker hydrocarbons, and the degradation of the markers was monitored. 

ChemPete, Inc., bioremediation is an effective and continuous cleanup method for transforming gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, kerosene, and chlorinated solvents to nonhazardous organic matter, carbon dioxide, and water, according to the vendor. ChemPete uses bacteria, nutrients, and a catalyst developed by Alpha Environmental Biosystems, Inc. ChemPete was the first company to achieve closure of both gasoline and fuel oil sites in situ in accordance with Illinois rigorous closure guidelines (5 parts per billion benzene). RIMS was unable to contact the vendor, and the commercial availability is unknown. 

Other jet fuels and related middle distillate fractions (MDFs) have been tested in bacteria and in vitro mammalian cell assays. As summarized by IARC (1989), jet fuel A and JP-5 were not mutagenic in Salmonella reverse-mutation assays. Neither was MD API 81-07, a hydrodesulfurized kerosene sample (Pennzoil 1988, as reviewed by Skisak 1991). 

Corrosion develops as pitting at the fuel-water interface. Like any other type of corrosion, it follows an electrochemical mechanism. Oxidation of kerosene by bacteria releases organic acids that modify the pH of the medium. Microbial deposits form anodic sites by local acidification. The oxidation reaction consumes the oxygen dissolved in kerosene and in water. 

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