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ABSTRACT
The release of spent oil from mechanic workshop is a major source of soil pollution in the studied community. This present study investigates the ability of fungi and actinomycete to degrade hydrocarbons from spent oil contaminated soil samples from Uwelu spare market in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. From the ten (10) soil samples collected the physical, chemical and microbial properties were analyzed using standard laboratory procedures. The result of the physiochemical properties of the soil revealed that the soil was acidic and total organic matter (9.23%) was relatively high. High level of heavy metals concentrations of cadmium (23.34 1kg), chromium (4.56 mg/kg), nickel (2.07 mg/kg) indicate pollution of soil by hydrocarbon. The preliminary screening of the actinomycetes and fungal isolates ability to biodegrade the motor spent oil revealed varied degree of biodegradation of the spent oil by all the fungal isolates (FUN1, FUN2, FUN3, FUN5) and actinomycetes isolates (ACT1, ACT2, ACT3, ACT4). The identified hydrocarbon degrading actinomycetes isolate selected for the biodegradation was Nocardia sp and hydrocarbon degrading fungal isolate was Aspergillus sp. Comparatively, the mean population of heterotrophic fungal(10.86 x 105cfu/g)was more than mean population of heterotrophic actinomycetes population (9.49 x 105cfu/g}. However, the mean population of hydrocarbon degrading actinomycetes (4.48x 105cfu/g) was higher than fungal mean population of 2.99 x 105cfu/g .The ratio of actinomycetes and fungal percentage of hydrocarbon degraders of 45.60% to 48.80 % suggested a higher hydrocarbon degrading fungi population density. The result of the biodegradation assay of spent oil by actinomycetes and fungal isolates revealed the percentage of degradation of the spent oil by the actinomycetes species (Nocardia sp) ranged from 19.23 to 29.32%. The percentage of degradation of the spent oil by the fungal isolate (Aspergillus sp) ranged from 17.96 % to 24.56%. Comparatively, the actinomycete isolate showed a higher percentage of degradation hence the actinomycete species (Nocardia sp) has greater potential to utilization motor spent oil and more prospects in biodegradation of spent oil contaminated soil.
