Assessment of sociocultural acceptability of biogas from faecal waste as an alternative energy source in selected areas of Benin City,Edo State,Nigeria

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The use of wastes for biogas production has been restricted to few feedstock like cattle manure and food waste. Increasing the feedstock base for...     

Bioremediation of crude oil pollution in the Kuwaiti desert: The role of adherent microorganisms

Pieces of stones and other solid materials found in the oil lake sites of the Kuwaiti desert appeared clean, providing indications of surface-associated enhanced crude oil degradation. Scanning electron microscope studies revealed that such surfaces were colonized by active microbial populations. The colonization of the stone surfaces was concentrated within crevices. When enriched from washed pieces of stones from the oil lake, the resulting mixed population of adherent microorganisms degraded much more crude oil (44.4%) in the presence of inert carrier materials (styrofoam chips) in laboratory cultures, than in the absence of the inert materials (21.8%). The inert materials were found to be extensively colonized by microorganisms just as was observed with the stone and other solid samples from the oil lake.     

Hydrocarbon Utilization in Yeast Isolates Found to Grow in Association with Petroleum in a Polluted Ultisol of Midwestern Nigeria

The population counts of hydrocarbon-utilising yeasts weremonitored at six sampling stations in the Benin City municipalarea over a four-week period. Although the population countswere relatively constant in each locality, the highest countsoccurred in areas heavily polluted by domestic and industrialeffluents. A total of thirty-five hydrocarbon-degrading yeastswere isolated from soil at the sampling stations usingn-hexadecane as sole carbon source. The isolates were identifiedas belonging to the genera Candida (27 strains), Endomycopsis (4 strains). All the organisms grew on long-chainn-alkane, kerosene, diesel oil and crude oil but failed to growon short-chain n-alkane, aromatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons.Measurement of growth attributes of the isolates usingn-hexadecane, diesel oil and crude oil as substrates showed thatthe Candida species were better utilizers of hydrocarbonsubstrates relative to Endomycopsis and Schizosaccharomyces species.     

Effects of an Oil Spill on Soil Physico-Chemical Properties of a Spill Site in a Typic Udipsamment of the Niger Delta Basin of Nigeria

Physico-chemical analysis of soil samples at an oil spill site in a Typic Udipsamment of the Niger Delta Basin of Nigeria showed that the total hydrocarbon content of top soil layers ranged from 18.6 to 23.6 ppm in the heavy impact zone and the oil had penetrated to a depth op 8.4 m. The concentration of hydrocarbons in the medium impact zone ranged from 10.04 to 10.38 ppm while hydrocarbons were not detected in 85% of samples from the unimpacted reference zone. Heavy metal concentration measurements in the soil revealed a significant build-up (P < 0.05) of lead, copper and zinc in the heavy impact zone. Other quality parameters including electrical conductity, exchangeable cations, total nitrogen and available phosphorus in impacted soils were relatively low, while the total organic carbon was high compared with the reference site. Textural class of soil from the different depths showed a predominantly brown sand at the topsoil, loamy sand and grey coarse sand at medium depths, and grey coarse sand and greyish sandy clay at greater depths.     

Impact of Zn and Cu on the development of phenanthrene catabolism in soil

Mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals are of major concern in contaminated soil. Biodegradation of PAHs in metal-contaminated soils is complicated because metals are toxic and cannot be degraded by biological processes. This investigation considered the effects of Zn and Cu (50, 100, 500 and 1,000 mg/kg) on ¹⁴C-phenanthrene biodegradation in soil over 60-day contact time. The presence of Zn at all concentrations and low concentrations of Cu (50 and 100 mg/kg) had no significant effect (p?>?0.05) on the development of phenanthrene catabolism; however, at higher Cu concentrations, the development of phenanthrene catabolism and bacterial cell numbers were significantly reduced (p?<?0.05). This suggests that Cu is more toxic than Zn to soil microbial PAH catabolic activity. Metal/PAH-contaminated soils represent one of the most difficult remedial challenges and insights into PAH biodegradation in the presence of metals is necessary in order to assess the potential for bioremediation.