(324d) Humic Substances in Treatment of Water Contaminated with Hydrocarbons

Humic substances facilitate the degradation of hydrocarbon contaminants in water, making them bioavailable and stimulating microbial metabolic activity. In this paper the effect of adding humic substances to water samples contaminated with diesel and oil, using a microbial consortium with bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas was studied. The variation is analyzed in the concentration of pollutants by determination of organic carbon, inorganic carbon, total carbon, chemical oxygen demand and biomass production in periods of 12 hours. A 80 to 95% was obtained without the presence of humic substances and of 35 to 70% when a concentration of 1000 mg / L in the samples was added. The values of organic carbon, and chemical oxygen demand are higher in the samples with added humic substances, so that the removal of hydrocarbon contaminants could be higher. However, the tests are not selective for hydrocarbon contaminants or humic substances.