Novel immobilization techniques of Acinetobacter (V2) and Paenibacillus (D9) bacterial strains for waste oil degradation.

Bacterial isolates used for the degradation of waste oils has gained greater interest in recent times since these isolates can be immobilized. However, it's their lack of reproducibility and continual usage that hinders its applicability. The aim of this work is to identify, purify, cultivate and immobilize bacterial isolates that are potential candidates to effectively and selectively degrade waste oils and waste oil blends and reuse them. In an attempt to render bacterium isolates applicable to degradation of lubricating and insulating oil in industrial processes this work investigates the immobilization (through support material, glutaldehyde activated amberlite, polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate and chitosan-sodium alginate matrix beads) of bacterial isolates. The data and observed trends show that developed immobilization techniques were successful in immobilizing bacterial isolate strains V2 and D9, with free cell degradation being most efficient (14.7–31.6%) followed by polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate (5.3–26.7%), chitosan-sodium alginate (8.8–0.3%) and amberlite-glutaldehyde (2.2–7.0%). The entrapment technique for immobilization of polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate and chitosan-sodium alginate proved to be more efficient than adsorption technique used for immobilization of amberlite-glutaldehyde. Free cell degradation was effective in degrading waste oil, but did so upon a single cycle with deterioration. Polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate bead matrix can be applied for degradative processes over a wide pH range and short incubation times while chitosan-sodium alginate is best suited for continuous long incubation periods. Reusability of both polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate and chitosan-sodium alginate beads are applicable up to a 10-cycle period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]