Characterization of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Bioaugmentation Potential of Locally Isolated Beneficial Microorganisms Consortium for Treatment of Tar-Balls

Oil spills are one of the environmental pollutions that commonly occur along coastal areas. Tar-balls products come from oil spill pollution. In this study, tar-ball pollution was monitored at 10 points coastline Marintaman Beach in Sipitang, Sabah, Malaysia. This research determined physical characteristics, composition, and concentration Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) tar-balls. The total number tar-balls collected 227 (n=227). were observed various shapes sizes recorded range 0.1 cm to 6.9 cm. composition outer inner layer determined. results showed main compounds found layers with benzo (g,h,i) perylene (72.26 mg/kg), flourene (59.87 dibenzo (a,h) anthracene (44.48 indeno (1,2,3-c,d) pyrene (78.18 (e) fluoranthene (45.70 respectively. Further done bioaugmentation study locally isolated beneficial microorganisms (LIBeM) consortium for treatment an Aerated Static Pile (ASP) bioreactor system. that, after 84 days treatment, consortium, consisting C. tropicalis-RETL-Cr1, violaceum-MAB-Cr1, P. aeruginosa-BAS-Cr1, able degrade petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) by 84% as compared natural attenuation (19%). microbial population during biodegradation is also discussed paper.