Bioremediation of complex pollutants from the oil industry containing cobalt and molybdenum catalysts

Abstract

Bioremediation is the process of detoxification or elimination of pollutants using microorganisms with different metabolic capabilities. Biodegradation by natural populations of microorganisms is one of the primary mechanisms by which oil and other pollutants of hydrocarbon origin can be removed from the environment and it is also much cheaper than the other remediation technologies. In this study, we analyzed the samples of historical waste from the oil industry, which contained sand, organic materials, heavy fuel oil and catalysts used during the process of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of oil. The aim was to examine the fate of cobalt and molybdenum, toxic heavy metals present in those catalysts. A consortium of microorganisms isolated from the complex pollutants from the oil industry was added to the samples. During the study, beside the transformation of cobalt and molybdenum forms, we also monitored the biodegradation process of the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH).