Bioremediation of soil contaminated crude oil by Agaricomycetes

One of the most important environmental problems is the decontamination of petroleum hydrocarbons polluted soil, particularly in the oil-rich country. Bioremediation is the most effective way to remove these pollutants in the soil. Spent mushroom compost has great ability to decompose lignin-like pollution. The purpose of this study was the bioremediation of soil contaminated with crude oil by an Agaricomycetes.

Soil sample amended with spent mushroom compost into 3%, 5% and 10% (w/w) with or without fertilizer. Ecotoxicity germination test was conducted with Lipidium sativa.

The amplified fragment (18 s rDNA) sequence of this mushroom confirmed that the strain belonged to Pleurotus ostreatus species with complete homology (100% identity). All tests experiment sets were effective at supporting the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated soil after three months. Petroleum contaminated soil amended with Spent mushroom compost 10% and fertilizer removed 64.7% of total petroleum hydrocarbons compared control. The germination index (%) in ecotoxicity tests ranged from 60.4 to 93.8%.

This showed that the petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated soil amended with 10% Spent mushroom compost had higher bioremediation ability and reduced soil toxicity in less than three months.