An Overview on Microbial Degradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contaminants

Microorganisms use to reduce/minimize the hazardous waste concentration from contaminated sites. Presently accepted disposal methods of incineration or burial insecure landfills have an expensive when amounts of contaminants are large. Mechanical and chemical methods generally used to remove hydrocarbons from contaminated sites are limited effective and expensive. But the Bioremediation is now used extensively for the biodegradation of hydrocarbon contamination resulting from the activities related to the petrochemical industry, which may refer to complete mineralization of organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and cell protein or transformation of complex organic contaminants to other simpler organic compounds, by biological agents like microorganisms. Many indigenous microorganisms in water and soil are capable of degrading hydrocarbon contaminants. This paper presents an updated overview of petroleum hydrocarbon degradation by microorganisms.