Aims: The effect of crude oil pollutants on water and soil pollution and ecological changes has resulted in several studies on the identification and removal of these pollutants. The biological methods have been highly regarded for controlling this type of pollution due to their optimal performance. The aim of this study was the comparative assessment of crude oil biodegradation by Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus RAG-1 in the presence and absence of biofunctional magnetic nanoparticles.
Materials and Methods: In this laboratory research, the amount of degradation of N-decane and Hexadecane were studied, as indices of normal paraffins in crude oil pollutions, by Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus RAG-1 in the optimal conditions, which Emulsan produced. Also, the effect of magnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide coated with two layers of Decanoic acid on the degradation was investigated separately. The independent t-test was performed to examine the significance of the model parameters and the two-way ANOVA was used to examine the goodness of fit. The experiment was done with a fractional factorial design. For statistical analysis of the results, Minitab V.16 software was used.
Findings: The biodegradation of N-decane and Hexadecane were obtained 85% and 86%, respectively, after 60 days. The presence of nanoparticles also led to an improvement in the biodegradation process and an increase of 91% and 89%, respectively.
Conclusion: Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus RAG- succeeds in eliminating paraffinic compounds from crude oil with medium chain length. The effect of presence of nanoparticle in the biodegradation of N-decane is greater than that of Hexadecane.