Isolation and Characterization of some Hydrocarbon Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Soil Contaminated with Auto Mechanic Used Oil

The disposal of used hydrocarbon can be more environmentally damaging than crude oil pollution itself. This study focused on the isolation and characterization of some hydrocarbon degrading bacteria isolated from soil contaminated with auto mechanic used oil in Keffi. The bacteria were isolated using standard microbiological technique and identified using Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The highest total bacteria count was recorded from worrkshop 4 (3.02 ±0.08) and the least was from shop 2 (1.61 ± 0.01). The different bacteria species identified were Bacillus thuringiensis, Proteus terrae, Pseudomonas synxantha, Flavobacterium columnare and Acinetobacter beijerinckii. The total viable count of hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria was Pseudomonas synxantha with (1.88 ± 0.03 cfu/g ). The effect of temperature on utilization of used hydrocarbon from mechanic workshops showed that highest utilization was observed at temperature of 32℃ were Pseudomonas synxantha utilized 14.01±2.01mg/ml. At temperature of 34℃, the highest utilization was also by Pseudomonas synxantha with 9.38±0.28mg/ml and the lowest was by Proteus terrae 3.00±0.14mg/ml. At 38℃ the highest utilization was observed by Bacillus thuringiensis 3.95±0.01mg/ml and the lowest was Pseudomonas synxantha 2.11±0.08mg/ml. the utilization of used hydrocarbon after one month showed that highest utilization was obtained after 3 weeks by Bacillus thuringiensis 9.60±0.18mg/ml and the lowest utilization were recorded by Proteus terrae 4.20±1.01mg/ml. From this study it was observed that different bacteria can utilize used hydrocarbon that contaminate soil.