African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (24), pp. 2735-2739, 17 December 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Review

Biological approach to oil spills remediation in the soil

Yakubu, M. Bello

School of Science, College of Education, PMB 39, Minna, Nigeria. Tel: +234-66-222205, +234-805-046-7560. E-mail: bellyms@yahoo.com.

Accepted 4 January, 2007

Perhaps there is no any other raw material that has impacted so much, and found wide application on human civilization than petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC). The paradox is that it is this same black gold that threatens human environment. PHC pollution in the environment, as well as the importance of natu-ral interactions amongst living entities to arrest the problems hitherto caused by oil spills are hereby examined. Biological approaches to pollution remediation, which include phytoremediation, bioreme-diation, and application of biosurfactant, are discussed. Two angles of approach to bioremediation of PHC spills in the soil are identified; the bioaugmentation and biostimulation. The use of surfactants of microbial origin has been found to be environmentally friendly, naturally selective and stable at elevated temperatures, _PH and salt concentration. Similarly, genetic methods have been found to be overwhelmingly promising in detecting as well as assessing PHC soil pollution, and clean up.

Key words: Oil spill, bioremediation, phytoremediation, biosurfactants.