Hexadecane aqueous emulsion characterization and uptake by an oil-degrading microbial consortium

In the present work was characterized in abiotic and biotic systems, the droplet size of hexadecane (HXD) in emulsified form. Furthermore it was assessed the uptake of HXD in their both form emulsified (microscopic droplets) and free (macroscopic droplets), using a microbial consortium with the capacity of degrading oil. HXD in emulsified form includes microscopic droplets of 0.1 and 0.5 up to 0.7 μm. In the biotic experiments the kinetic parameters values were determined either by fitting to the Contois model the consumed data of HXD emulsified and by considering also the uptake rate of the free forms of HXD as independent of their own concentration. A comparison of the maximum specific HXD uptake rate (q_max) of the oil-degrading consortium when consumes the two forms of HXD, shows to be 53 times greater for the emulsified HXD that for their free form, suggesting that consumption of HXD is realized mostly by the emulsified form. The specific transfer area decreases with the culture time due to that the HXD is emulsified and consumed by the microbial consortium, being the specific transfer area of emulsified forms (microscopic droplets) a parameter that must be considered in the design of biodegradation processes of insoluble organic pollutants.