Acinetobacter venetianus AMO1502: a strain isolated from an oil spill capable of degrading diesel and producing...

The bioremediation potential of the Acinetobacter venetianus AMO1502 strain, a microorganism isolated from the oil collected from the spill off the Brazilian coast in 2019, was investigated using diesel oil as a hydrocarbon source. A. venetianus AMO1502 was able to grow in a medium containing only non-sterile diesel oil as a carbon source. In the bioprocesses using 0.5% and 1.0% (v/v) diesel oil, all compounds were completely degraded after 168 h, while the biodegradation percentage decreased with increasing diesel oil concentration. The surfactant compounds produced formed stable emulsions with diesel oil and kerosene as hydrophobic substrate, reaching emulsification indexes of 50–65%. A reduction in the surface tension of the medium was observed, decreasing by up to 65.9% (from 68.5 mN/m to 23.4 mN/m). These results demonstrate that the isolated strain, A. venetianus AMO1502, efficiently metabolizes hydrocarbons and produces surface-active compounds, highlighting its potential application in the bioremediation of petroleum-derived compounds.