Yasser M. Moustafa

Degradation of Asphaltenic Fraction by Locally Isolated Halotolerant Bacterial Strains

Three halotolerant bacterial species were isolated from locally oil-polluted water sample for their ability to utilize asphaltene (Asph) fraction as sole carbon and energy source. These bacteria degrade 83–96% of 2500 mg/L asphaltene within 21 d at 3 0 ∘ C and pH7. They were identified as Bacillus sp. Asph1, Pseudomonas aeruginosa Asph2, and Micrococcus sp. Asph3. A statistically significant difference at 95% confidence level for cell growth and percentage biodegradation (%BD) was observed in all biotreatment flasks relative to noninoculated (–ve control) flasks. Regression analysis estimated a quadratic polynomial equation for Asph biodegradation as a function of cell growth. Gel permeation chromatographic (GPC) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis revealed decrease in Asph average molecular weights and significant alternations in functional groups after biotreatment, respectively.

Effect of different bioremediation techniques on petroleum biomarkers and asphaltene fraction in oil-polluted sea water

AbstractThe present study has clearly demonstrated that seeding a petroleum hydrocarbon polluted sea water with a halotolerant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Asph2 and corn steep liquor as a cheap and readily available source of nutrients significantly enhances the progress of biodegradation BD of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants. There was a statistically high significant difference between natural weathering NW and both bioaugmentation BA (p = 2.92e-14) and biostimulation BS (p = 3.56e-13) at 95% confidence interval (α = 0.05). BA significantly improved the efficiency of total petroleum hydrocarbon TPH and the recalcitrant asphaltene degradation by ≈ 23 and 17% compared to BS process (p = 2.0693e-5 and p = 1.4e-3, respectively). The BD of biomarkers; pristane Pr, phytane Ph, and terpanes were very apparent. The BD of C28 tricyclic terpane, C27 13β, 17α- diasterane (20S), and C30 17α, 21β-hopane were higher than that of C35 17α,21β-homohopane. The BD of C27 18α(H)-22,29,30-trisnorneohopane (Ts) was higher than t...

The Biosorption of Phenol from Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Using Spent Waste Biomass

This work investigates the potentiality of application of spent waste biomass (yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, rice straw, and sugarcane bagasse) from bioethanol production process as low-cost biosorbents for removal of phenol from petroleum refinery wastewater. Batch adsorption studies were carried out under varying experimental conditions of contact time, initial phenol concentration, and operational temperature. Rice straw showed better affinity towards phenol than sugarcane bagasse, while S. cerevisiae did not express any biosorption capacity. The biosorption process on rice straw or sugarcane bagasse was fast and the time to reach equilibrium was found to be 150 min. Kinetic studies showed that biosorption follows the pseudo-second order rate expression. The results were better described by the Langmuir isotherm model than the Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models. The calculated heat of adsorption indicated that the biosorption process is taking place by chemical adsorption and has an endothermic nature.

Treatment of Oily Wastewater by Using Porous PVA Hydrogels as Oil Adsorbent

The adsorption of crude oil from wastewater on the crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel (HPVA) and its foam (HPVAF) was reported. The macroporous HPVAF was prepared by adding CaCO3 and epichlorohydrin as pore-forming agent and crosslinker, respectively. The prepared hydrogels were characterized, and their ability to adsorb and immobilize the crude oil was assessed by gravimetric method at the optimum condition. The HPVAF carrier demonstrated the improvement in the hydrocarbon trapping than the HPVA one. Scanning electron microscopy showed the presence of extracellular structures that could play an important role in the immobilization stability of crude oil on polymers. As well, the percentage removal ability of the crude oil by HPVAF was approximately, 82%. The results suggest the potential of using HPVA and HPVAF films as trapping for crude oil to enhance the treatment of oily wastewater with a low cost in an open marine environment. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Application of Response Surface Methodology to Enhance Phenol Removal from Refinery Wastewater by Microwave Process

Phenol contaminated petroleum refinery wastewater presents a great threat on water resources safety. This study investigates the effect of microwave irradiation on removal of different concentrations of phenol in an attempt for petroleum refinery wastewater treatment. The obtained results show that the MW output power and irradiation time have a significant positive effect on the removal efficiency of phenol. The kinetic reaction is significantly affected by initial MW output power and initial phenol concentrations. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize and study the interaction effects of process parameters: MW output power, irradiation time, salinity, pH, and H2O2 concentration using central composite design (CCD). From the CCD design matrix, a quadratic model was considered as an ultimate model (2 = 0.75) and its adequacy was justified through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The overall reaction rates were significantly enhanced in the combined MW/H2O2 system as proved by RSM. The optimum values for the design parameters of the MW/H2O2 process were evaluated giving predicted phenol removal percentage of 72.90% through RSM by differential approximation and were confirmed by experimental phenol removal of 75.70% in a batch experiment at optimum conditions of 439 W MW power, irradiation time of 24.22 min, salinity of 574 mg/L, pH 5.10, and initial H2O2 concentration of 10% (v/v).

Evaluation of a bioslurry remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated sediments using chemical, mathematical and microscopic analysis

This paper concerns the bioremediation of three petroleum hydrocarbon polluted sediment samples collected from the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The study used a bioslurry system inoculated with Staphylococcus gallinarum NK1, which showed good bioremediation capability regardless of the type of pollutant hydrocarbon and its concentration.

Zn +2 -doped x -Ti–SiO 2 tricomposites for enhancement the photo-catalytic degradation of phenol under UV irradiation

A series of zinc-doped titania–silica tricomposites (Zn/xTi–SiO2) with different Ti-molar ratios were prepared by sol–gel method. Zn+2 ions of 25 wt% were doped on the photo-catalysts using wet impregnation method. The as-synthesized Zn/xTi–SiO2 nano-catalysts were characterized through N2-adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, fourier transform infrared, dynamic light scatterings, photoluminescence, and diffuse reflectance techniques. Photo-catalytic degradation of phenol (PhOH) under 8-W ultraviolet C irradiation was examined. 96% removal was achieved in 150 min by using Zn/20Ti–SiO2. The kinetic study revealed that photo-degradation of PhOH follows pseudo-first order reaction mechanism, where the rate constant was 77.4 × 10−3 min−1. One-way analysis of variance, as well as Student’t-test at α = 0.05 level (95% confidence interval) was performed to comparing the means of the results obtained.Graphical Abstract

Petroleum Oil Dispersion Efficiency and Stability Using Eco-Friendly Chitosan-Based Surfactant and Nanoparticles

In this article, a new aspect of comparing oil dispersion efficiency and stability using eco-friendly surfactants and nanoparticles of the same natural origin was carried out. Nanoparticles effectively disperse oil in water as well as do surfactant but with different actions; surfactants act by reducing the interfacial tension between oil and water leading to the distribution of oil in water while nanoparticles give stable and uniform distribution of oil in water depending on oil trapping inside the polymer matrix. As a result, the dispersion stability of nanoparticles was found to be superior to that of surfactant.

The Enhancement of Pyrene Biodegradation by Assembling MFe3O4 Nano-sorbents on the Surface of Microbial Cells

Microbial cells of Gram +ve Micrococcus lutes RM1 was coated by magnetic MFe3O4 nanoparticles, which have good adsorption capacity towards pyrene (7.66 μmole/g). Transmission electron microscope analysis of the cells showed that the MFe3O4 nanoparticles were efficiently assembled on the surfaces of the microbial cell and strongly adsorbed by the surfaces of the cells. The coated cells not only showed higher biodegradation capabilities towards pyrene but could also be reused for three successive cycles characterized by operational stability and have the advantage of magnetic separation.

The Utilization of Activated Carbon/Lignin Biocomposite as Recyclable Sorbent For In-Situ Removal of High-Concentration BTX from Petroleum Wastewater

Extended Abstract Among varies petroleum pollutants of interest, BTX (i.e., benzene, toluene, and xylene of ortho, meta and para-positions) mono-aromatics has found to be the most environmental problem [1]. Environmental legalization policies are listed BTX as contaminants of emerging concerns (CECs) because of their potential toxic and/or carcinogenic properties for human health or animals and drinking water contamination, even in trace levels [2]. In this work, a facile one-pot co-precipitation process was developed to construct granule activated carbon (gAC)/Kraft lignin (KL) biocomposite (gAC/KLx) as a new eco-friendly sorbent from recycling industrial wastes of both palm-date pits and pulping black liquor. The synthesized gAC/KLx biocomposite with defined characteristics using ATR-FTIR, XRD, SEM, BET, TGA, DLS and Zeta potential analyses was utilized as an effective sorbent of environmentally toxic BTX compounds (benzene, toluene and xylene) from petroleum wastewater effluents. Sorption behavior of BTX over gAC/KLx biocomposites with different ratios of Kraft lignin (x = 33, 50 and 67%) in batch experiments were evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Interestingly, the gAC/KL showed the highest sorption capacity of BTX at lignin blended ratio of 50%, even from broad ranges of water salinity (up to 100,000 mg/L) and pH values (pH 4 9). The sorption behavior of BTX compounds were found to fit better to a type two pseudo-second kinetic (adsorption kinetic rate of BTX at 0.104 g.mg.min) and Langmuir isotherm models, as confirmed by the higher coefficient of R> 0.98. The sorption affinities of the gAC/KL0.5 biocomposite with respect to 250 mg/L BTX can be ordered in the sequence Xylene > Toluene ≥ benzene with highest monolayer capacities reached to 170.5, 160.5 and 159.7 mg/g, respectively after 6 h. The adsorption mechanism was found to follows the diffusion and hydrophobic sorption mechanisms. Particularly, the possibilities of BTX elution for gAC/KL0.5 reuse were evaluated up to five cycles without high significant loss in sorption efficiencies during multiple wastewater treatment. As such, on the basis of batch BTX sorption studies, the gAC/KL0.5 is expected to be a promising low cost and high performance new sorbent to be reutilize for real wastewater treatment process and petroleum hazardous decontamination with higher thermal stability (up to 350 C) and aqueous stability (10% 21% efficiency loss).