Dual effects of a dispersant and nutrient supplementation on weathered Endicott oil biodegradation in seawater

Yves R. Personna; Thomas King; Michel C. Boufadel; Shuangyi Zhang; Lisa Axe; Yves R. Personna; Thomas King; Michel C. Boufadel; Shuangyi Zhang; Lisa Axe

doi:10.3934/environsci.2016.4.739

AIMS Environmental Science

2016, Volume 3, Issue 4: 739-751. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2016.4.739

Previous Article Next Article

Research article

Dual effects of a dispersant and nutrient supplementation on weathered Endicott oil biodegradation in seawater

1.
Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, USA
2.
Currently at PYRO Environmental Consulting, Brooklyn, New York, USA
3.
Center for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Received: 08 August 2016 Accepted: 01 November 2016 Published: 09 November 2016

Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the biodegradation of physically (WAF) and chemically dispersed (CEWAF) Endicott oil in seawater (salinity: 29.1‰) from Prince William Sound, Alaska, under low nutrient (LN) (background seawater) and high nutrient (HN) (addition of 100 mg NO3-N/L and 10 mg PO4-P/L to background seawater) at 15 ± 0.5 °C for 42 days. The dispersant was Corexit 9500. The dispersed oil concentration of the WAF (0.019 g/L ± 0.002) was an order of magnitude lower than that in the CEWAF (0.363 g/L ± 0.038). While remaining negligible in the WAF, the total oil removal in the CEWAF was 26% and 44% in LN and HN treatments, respectively. Nutrient supplementation significantly accelerated the rate of oil biodegradation as confirmed by ANOVA coupled with Tukey’s test at 95% confidence intervals (α = 0.05). GC/MS analyses revealed that biodegradation affected mainly alkane compounds. In the CEWAF, O2 consumption, CO2 production and biomass were much larger in HN than in LN treatments, which suggests that chemical dispersion of oil coupled with high nutrient concentration could be very useful in terms of remediation strategies and effective responses to oil spill at sea.
- Biodegradation,
- bioremediation,
- Endicott oil,
- dispersants,
- nutrients,
- seawater
Citation: Yves R. Personna, Thomas King, Michel C. Boufadel, Shuangyi Zhang, Lisa Axe. Dual effects of a dispersant and nutrient supplementation on weathered Endicott oil biodegradation in seawater[J]. AIMS Environmental Science, 2016, 3(4): 739-751. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2016.4.739

Related Papers:

Abstract

Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the biodegradation of physically (WAF) and chemically dispersed (CEWAF) Endicott oil in seawater (salinity: 29.1‰) from Prince William Sound, Alaska, under low nutrient (LN) (background seawater) and high nutrient (HN) (addition of 100 mg NO3-N/L and 10 mg PO4-P/L to background seawater) at 15 ± 0.5 °C for 42 days. The dispersant was Corexit 9500. The dispersed oil concentration of the WAF (0.019 g/L ± 0.002) was an order of magnitude lower than that in the CEWAF (0.363 g/L ± 0.038). While remaining negligible in the WAF, the total oil removal in the CEWAF was 26% and 44% in LN and HN treatments, respectively. Nutrient supplementation significantly accelerated the rate of oil biodegradation as confirmed by ANOVA coupled with Tukey’s test at 95% confidence intervals (α = 0.05). GC/MS analyses revealed that biodegradation affected mainly alkane compounds. In the CEWAF, O2 consumption, CO2 production and biomass were much larger in HN than in LN treatments, which suggests that chemical dispersion of oil coupled with high nutrient concentration could be very useful in terms of remediation strategies and effective responses to oil spill at sea.

References

[1]	McGenity TJ (2014) Hydrocarbon biodegradation in intertidal wetland sediments. Curr Opin Biotechnol 27: 46-54. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.10.010
[2]	Atlas RM, Hazen TC (2011) Oil biodegradation and bioremediation: a tale of the two worst spills in U.S. history. Environ Sci Technol 45: 6709-6715. doi: 10.1021/es2013227
[3]	NOAA (2010) Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Budget: what happened to the oil. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report Silver Spring, MD Authors: Lubchenco, Jane; McNutt, Marcia; Lehr, Bill; Sogge, Mark; Miller, Mark; Hammond, Stephen; Conner, William.
[4]	Kaku VJ, Boufadel MC, Venosa AD (2006) Evaluation of mixing energy in laboratory flasks used for dispersant effectiveness testing. J Environ Eng 132: 93-101. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2006)132:1(93)
[5]	Zhao L, Torlapati J, Boufadel MC, et al. (2014) VDROP: a numerical model for the simulation of droplet formation from oils of various viscosities. Chem Eng J 253: 93-106. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.04.082
[6]	Venosa AD, Holder EL (2007) Biodegradability of dispersed crude oil at two different temperatures. Mar Pollut Bull 54: 545-553. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2006.12.013
[7]	Ron EZ, Rosenberg E (2002) Biosurfactants and oil bioremediation. Curr Opin Biotechnol 13: 249-252. doi: 10.1016/S0958-1669(02)00316-6
[8]	Rosenberg E, Ron E (1999) High-and low-molecular-mass microbial surfactants. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 52: 154-162. doi: 10.1007/s002530051502
[9]	NRC (2005) Oil spill dispersants: efficacy and effects: National Academies Press.
[10]	Boufadel MC, Sharifi Y, Van Aken B, et al. (2010) Nutrient and oxygen concentrations within the sediments of an Alaskan beach polluted with the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Environ Sci Technol 44: 7418-7424. doi: 10.1021/es102046n
[11]	Bragg JR, Prince RC, Harner EJ, et al. (1994) Effectiveness of bioremediation for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Nature 368: 413-418. doi: 10.1038/368413a0
[12]	Sharifi Y, Van Aken B, Boufadel MC (2011) The effect of pore water chemistry on the biodegradation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Water Qual Expos Hea 2: 157-168.
[13]	Venosa AD, Suidan MT, Wrenn BA, et al. (1996) Bioremediation of an experimental oil spill on the shoreline of Delaware Bay. Environ Sci Technol 30: 1764-1775. doi: 10.1021/es950754r
[14]	Boufadel M, Reeser P, Suidan M, et al. (1999) Optimal nitrate concentration for the biodegradation of n-heptadecane in a variably-saturated sand column. Environ Technol 20: 191-199. doi: 10.1080/09593332008616808
[15]	Geng X, Boufadel MC, Personna YR, et al. (2014) BIOB: a mathematical model for the biodegradation of low solubility hydrocarbons. Mar Pollut Bull 83: 138-147. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.007
[16]	Atlas RM, Bartha R (1973) Stimulated biodegradation of oil slicks using oleophilic fertilizers. Environ Sci Technol 7: 538-541. doi: 10.1021/es60078a005
[17]	Oh YS, Sim DS, Kim SJ (2003) Effectiveness of bioremediation on oil-contaminated sand in intertidal zone. J microbiol biotechnol 13: 437-443.
[18]	Smith VH, Graham DW, Cleland DD (1998) Application of resource-ratio theory to hydrocarbon biodegradation. Environ sci technol 32: 3386-3395. doi: 10.1021/es9805019
[19]	Zahed MA, Aziz HA, Isa MH, et al. (2010) Optimal conditions for bioremediation of oily seawater. Bioresour technol 101: 9455-9460. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.07.077
[20]	Blondina GJ, Singer MM, Lee I, et al. (1999) Influence of salinity on petroleum accommodation by dispersants. Spill Sci Technol B 5: 127-134.
[21]	Mille GM, Almallah M, Bianchi M, et al. (1991) Effect of salinity on petroleum biodegradation. Fresenius J anal chem 339: 788-791. doi: 10.1007/BF00321746
[22]	Personna YR, King T, Boufadel MC, et al. (2014) Assessing weathered Endicott oil biodegradation in brackish water. Mar Pollut Bull 86: 102-110.
[23]	Fisher SD ( 2005) Enhanced biodegradation of highly weathered crude oil by chemical oxidation. . St. Louis, MO: Washington University.
[24]	EPA (1996) Method 3510C: Separatory funnel liquid-liquid extraction. Revision 3, pp. 1-8.
[25]	Wrenn BA, Venosa AD (1996) Selective enumeration of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon degrading bacteria by a most-probable-number procedure. Can J Microbiol 42: 252-258.
[26]	Rittmann BE, McCarty PL (2001) Environmental biotechnology: McGraw-Hill New York.
[27]	Venosa AD, Holder EL (2013) Determining the dispersibility of South Louisiana crude oil by eight oil dispersant products listed on the NCP Product Schedule. Mar Pollut Bull 66: 73-77. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.11.009
[28]	Amann RI, Ludwig W, Schleifer KH (1995) Phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation. Microbiol rev 59: 143-169.
[29]	Kästner M, Breuer-Jammali M, Mahro B (1998) Impact of inoculation protocols, salinity, and pH on the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and survival of PAH-degrading bacteria introduced into soil. Appl Environ Microbiol 64: 359-362.
[30]	Atlas R, Bragg J (2009) Bioremediation of marine oil spills: when and when not–the Exxon Valdez experience. Microb biotechnol 2: 213-221. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7915.2008.00079.x
[31]	Aeppli C, Carmichael CA, Nelson RK, et al. (2012) Oil weathering after the Deepwater Horizon disaster led to the formation of oxygenated residues. Environ sci technol 46: 8799-8807. doi: 10.1021/es3015138
[32]	Venosa AD, Campo P, Suidan MT (2010) Biodegradability of lingering crude oil 19 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Environ sci technol 44: 7613-7621. doi: 10.1021/es101042h
[33]	Gallego JR, González-Rojas E, Peláez AI, et al. (2006) Natural attenuation and bioremediation of Prestige fuel oil along the Atlantic coast of Galicia (Spain). Org Geochem 37: 1869-1884. doi: 10.1016/j.orggeochem.2006.07.022
[34]	Wrenn BA, Sarnecki KL, Kohar ES, et al. (2006) Effects of nutrient source and supply on crude oil biodegradation in continuous-flow beach microcosms. J Environ Eng 132: 75-84.
[35]	Douglas GS, McCarthy KJ, Dahlen DT, et al. (1992) The use of hydrocarbon analyses for environmental assessment and remediation. Soil Sediment Contam 1: 197-216. doi: 10.1080/15320389209383411
[36]	Prince RC, McFarlin KM, Butler JD, et al. (2013) The primary biodegradation of dispersed crude oil in the sea. Chemosphere 90: 521-526. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.08.020
[37]	McFarlin KM, Prince RC, Perkins R, et al. (2014) Biodegradation of dispersed oil in arctic seawater at-1 C. PloS one 9: e84297.

Reader Comments

Your name:*

Email:*
© 2016 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)