Bioremediation of Petrol Engine Oil Polluted Soil Using Microbial Consortium and Wheat Crop

Contamination of soil / water resources by petroleum products poses severe threats to underground water and soil quality. In the present study biosurfactant producing bacterial cultures were used to degrade petrol engine oil under in situ conditions in the plant rhizosphere system. Two bacterial isolates used in this study were recovered from Haldia oil refinery site & petrol station of Pantnagar and identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (JX100389) and P. plecoglossicida (JX149549). Application of consortium C2, (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. plecoglossicida) degraded 56.14 % petrol engine oil @ 2% in the soil planted with wheat (Triticum aestivum var. 2565) crop after 120 days. GC-MS of biodegraded fuel showed the presence of new product like octanoic acid-2-ethylhexyl ester and 1, 2-benzenedicarboxylic acid