Biodegradation of oil-contaminated aqueous ecosystem using an immobilized fungi biomass and kinetic study

Remediation of environmental oil pollution with the usage of fungal organisms has proven to be a successful cleanup bioremediation method for organic contaminants. To investigate the breakdown of oil pollutants in water environments, biosurfactant-producing fungi have been isolated from oil-polluted soil samples. 16s rRNA sequencing technique was performed to identify the fungal organism and phylogenetic tree has been constructed. A variety of biosurfactant screening tests have demonstrated the better biosurfactant producing ability of fungi. The emulsion's stability, which is essential for the biodegradation process, was indicated by the emulsification index of 68.48% and emulsification activity of 1.3. In the isolated biosurfactant, important functional groups such as amino groups, lipids, and sugars were found according to thin layer chromatography analysis with a maximum retention value of 0.85. A maximum oil degradation of around 64% was observed with immobilized beads within 12 days. The half-life, and degradation removal rate constant of 20.21 days and 0.03 day^-1, respectively, have been determined by the degradation kinetic analysis. GCMS analysis confirmed the highly degraded hydrocarbons such as nonanoic acid and pyrrolidine. The immobilized fungi exhibit better oil biodegradability in aqueous solutions.