Microbial Degradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contaminants: An Overview

TLDR

Hydrocarbon contamination from petrochemical activities is a major environmental problem, with accidental releases posing carcinogenic and neurotoxic risks, and conventional disposal or mechanical/chemical removal methods being costly and often ineffective, leading to interest in bioremediation via microbial biodegradation. This paper presents an updated overview of petroleum hydrocarbon degradation by microorganisms, highlighting bioremediation as a cost‑effective technology that can achieve complete mineralization. The paper reviews microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons across different ecosystems, outlining the mechanisms by which microorganisms transform these contaminants.

Abstract

One of the major environmental problems today is hydrocarbon contamination resulting from the activities related to the petrochemical industry. Accidental releases of petroleum products are of particular concern in the environment. Hydrocarbon components have been known to belong to the family of carcinogens and neurotoxic organic pollutants. Currently accepted disposal methods of incineration or burial insecure landfills can become prohibitively expensive when amounts of contaminants are large. Mechanical and chemical methods generally used to remove hydrocarbons from contaminated sites have limited effectiveness and can be expensive. Bioremediation is the promising technology for the treatment of these contaminated sites since it is cost-effective and will lead to complete mineralization. Bioremediation functions basically on biodegradation, which may refer to complete mineralization of organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and cell protein or transformation of complex organic contaminants to other simpler organic compounds by biological agents like microorganisms. Many indigenous microorganisms in water and soil are capable of degrading hydrocarbon contaminants. This paper presents an updated overview of petroleum hydrocarbon degradation by microorganisms under different ecosystems.