Twenty hydrocarbon degrading microorganism were isolated from four hydrocarbon contaminated sites and were identified on the basis of morphological and biochemical characteristics as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The study revealed high density of bacteria acclimatized for biodegradation of hydrocarbon (Petrol) in soil. The isolates were examined for other hydrocarbon degradation in media supplemented with Benzene, Toluene, Xylene and Cyclohexane at three different concentrations viz 5%, 10% and 15% incubated for 3 different time intervals 5, 10 and 15 days. The results indicated that all the isolates possessed potential to degrade the wide variety of hydrocarbons. The most efficient among them was Pseudomonas aeruginosa which degraded all tested hydrocarbon showing maximum growth at 5% concentration and 10 days incubation. It could be concluded that native flora of hydrocarbon contaminated site adapt to the environmental condition and could be implicated to remove hydrocarbons.
Keywords: Benzene, Bioremediation, Petrol, Toluene, Xylene and Cyclohexane
