Abstract

The potential biodegradation of crude oil was assessed by 50 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultured in a basal mineral medium using crude oil as a sole carbon source. The strains are isolated from both environmental and hospital samples (noncontaminated crude oil sites). After 28 days of incubation, more than 60% of crude oil was degraded and further converted into accumulated cell biomass. Therefore, the use of the bacterial consortium increases the percentage of biodegradation up to 67 %. The analysis of residual crude oil by Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) confirms the results that show that Pseudomonas aeruginosa could be effective in the biodegradation of crude oil.