Degradation of Askarel (PCB Blend) by Indigenous Aerobic Bacteria Isolates from Dumpsites in Ore, Ondo State.Nigeria

Degradation of Askarel (PCB Blend) by Indigenous Aerobic Bacteria Isolates from Dumpsites in Ore, Ondo State.Nigeria. Nwinyi, Obinna C Department of Biological sciences, School of Natural and Applied Sciences, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Km 10 Idiroko Road, Canaan land PMB, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Abstract: The removal of toxic industrial products such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) in soils has become a daunting and necessary task. These compounds adsorb onto organic matter in the environment, making decontamination using traditional approaches difficult or ineffective. The use of microbes to transform these contaminants to non toxic degradation products is an alternative and imperative approach due to the prevalence of such organisms within the environment. In this study; the use of bacteria in the microbial degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls blend (Askarel) was explored. The notable bacteria isolated from dumpsites in Ore, Ondo state were identified using morphological and biochemical characteristics. These include: Pseudomonas, Micrococcus, Corynebacteria, Bacillus, Achromobacter and Arthrobacter species. The bacterial isolates potential to utilize Polychlorinated biphenyls blend (Askarel) as carbon source was investigated for twenty-one days period. From the results obtained, there was a general decrease in the pH and increase in mean Optical density (O.D); were the mean pH and O.D readings ranged between (3.08-6.02 and 0.060-0.557) respectively.