Abstract:
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are produced during natural processes such as incomplete combustion of organic materials, human activity, oil drilling rig capsizes and present in crude oil that has spent time in the ocean and eventually reaches shore. Environmental contamination with PAHs are a concern, especially when they are contaminated in marine sediment, they do not break down easily in the water and can stay in the environment for long periods of time. The work in this thesis is focused on screening of denitrifying bacteria from marine sediment for PAHs degradation. The results showed that Nitrification bacteria specie from identification were Clostridium bartlettii and Denitrification bacteria species were Enterococcus faecalis, Paenibacillus macerans, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus tequilensis, Proteus mirabilis and Enterobacter asburiae. The highest number of PAHs degrading ability were observed in P. mirabilis and P. macerans. At 16 days of incubation, Napthalene, Pyrene and Benzo-a-Pyrene can be eliminated for 73, 167 and 98 ppm, respectively with initial 200 ppm of PAHs. In addition, the performance of degradation is also depend on a number of benzene ring in PAHs structure and nitrate as an electron acceptor in the way to degrade PAHs occurs under anaerobic condition as well.