Impact Analysis of Cow and Goat Biles as Amendments in the Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Water Using a Fixed-Bed Bioreactor Setup

Abstract

Petroleum remains a major source of energy for industry and daily life. There is enough oil reserve to sustain the trend for decades to come. The quest to meet the increasing global demand for petroleum has been associated with proportional rise in hydrocarbon contamination. Bioremediation has received favourable consideration as an efficient means to dealing with the problem of petroleum contamination. The performance of cow bile (CB), goat bile (GB) and a 1:1 mix of both biles at various levels as bio-stimulants towards the remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated water were tested in the current study. Applied biles stimulated appreciable boosts in microbial mass and TPH removal. CB+GB mix emerged the best performing bile at all levels in terms of its impact on TPH removal and microbial mass. CB, GB and CB+GB application respectively registered 10.56±1.63 to 16.47±0.21 %, 21.08±3.01 to 27.39±0.49 % and 24.56±0.49 to 29.19±1.06 % boosts in TPH removal and 5.05±1.63 to 10.25±1.91 %, 3.80±1.27 to 9.10±2.12 % and 6.55±1.77 to 18.30±3.11 % boosts in microbial mass. TPH removal and microbial mass boosts across applied levels assumed the trend 40>20>10 for all biles. A significant interaction effect existed between applied bile levels and immobilized hydrocarbon-eating microbes statistically (p>0.05).