Screening of Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria from Oil Contaminated Sites of Erode District, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Biosurfactant production by three bacterial strains (PBS 10, DLS 08, and MVS 11) were isolated from various oil contaminated sites like petrol bunk, diesel sheds etc in and around Erode. In the present study, biosurfactants were produced by using Mineral salt (MS) media and the isolates were identified and screened for biosurfactant production using drop collapse, oil displacement and emulsification test. The produced biosurfactant was extracted and characterized using FT- IR. The biosurfactant producing organisms were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, klebesilla pneumoniae, and Pantoea dispersa by 16SrRNA gene sequencing. The three strains have shown high effectiveness in biosurfactant productions whereas the emulsification index revealed that Pseudomonas aeruginosa having the highest index of 25 % and it can be utilized in oil recovery than chemically synthesized surfactants and it’s more attractive to be applied in microbial enhanced oil recovery.