A novel bioremediation strategy for petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants using salt tolerant Corynebacterium variabile HRJ4 and biochar.

The present work aimed to develop a novel strategy to bioremediate the petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants in the environment. Salt tolerant bacterium was isolated from Dagang oilfield, China and identified as Corynebacterium variabile HRJ4 based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The bacterium had a high salt tolerant capability and biochar was developed as carrier for the bacterium. The bacteria with biochar were most effective in degradation of n-alkanes (C16, C18, C19, C26, C28) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NAP, PYR) mixture. The result demonstrated that immobilization of C. variabile HRJ4 with biochar showed higher degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (THPs) up to 78.9% after 7-day of incubation as compared to the free leaving bacteria. The approach of this study will be helpful in clean-up of petroleum-contamination in the environments through bioremediation process using eco-friendly and cost effective materials like biochar.