Abstract
Crude oil is one the most common organic pollutant of the soil. The spillage of crude oil in the soil can be harmful to living organisms. Certain microorganisms are able to biodegrade crude oil and use it as sole carbon source. Some detergents were used to help the biodegradation of crude oil by microorganisms. In this study Triton X-100 was used to determine its effect in biodegradation of aliphatic and aromatic fractions of heavy crude oil in soil during 4 months. Different concentration of Triton X-100 (0 to 0.25%) was added to crude oil-contaminated soil with 2% (w/w) crude oil as final concentration. Present results demonstrated that in 0.025% of Triton X-100 the reduction of total crude oil, total aliphatic and total aromatic fractions were high, while in 0.05 to 0.25% the reduction reached to its minimum value. The higher reduction of phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene and pyrene was observed in 0.025% Triton X-100 while it was lower in 0.25% followed by 0.1% Triton X-100. The low reduction of C17/pristane and C18/phytane in 0.25% Triton X-100 suggested low bioavaibility of aliphatic compounds in this concentration.