Biosorbent Capacity of an Indigenous Eichhornia Crassipes Biomass Product on Crude Oil

Crude oil is among the natural endowments of a nation. Natural resources are often regarded as free gifts of nature. The aim of the study is to determine crude oil absorption and microbial load of water hyacinth compost to provide insights into the potential use of water hyacinth compost for environmental cleanup and remediation purposes. Water hyacinth compost (WHC) samples were collected from GOA’s research group, at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The microbial load and physicochemical parameters of the dry water hyacinth compost were determined using the Manual of Methods in Environmental Microbiology. Results show the total heterotrophic bacterial count for the WHC to be 2.3× 108CFU/g and the hydrocarbon utilizing bacterial count as 1.12× 104 CFU/g. The WHC is hydrophobic by the biphasic partitioning method, hasa bulk density of 0.0225g/cc, a surface area of 6.6m2/g and positive buoyancy in water; a unit (1g) of water hyacinth compost absorbed approximately 8x its weight of crude oil. These results show that the water hyacinth compost has the capacity as a biosorbent product for crude oil and biotechnologically beneficial microbes,and, thus, can be a remedial technique in the form of biosorbents with biodegrading potential in the mitigation of crude oil pollution in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems