Microbiological and physicochemical evaluation of palm oil mill effulent (POME) contaminated soil

ABSTRACT

The palm oil industry in Nigeria is dominated by small to medium scale farmers who use semi mechanized processors for palm oil processing which employs large volume of water resulting in the production of large volumes effluent. Hence there is need to evaluate the microbiological and physicochemical quality of palm oil mill effluent (POME) contaminated soils. Five POME contaminated soil samples and one uncontaminated soil sample which served as control were collected from palm oil mills located at Egbema community in Ohaji Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria.  The soil samples after processing were subjected to physicochemical analysis like pH, moisture content, total organic carbon (TOC), nitrate and phosphate concentrations. Microbiological analysis was also carried out to determine the soil microbiological quality. pH ranged between 4.95 ± 0.12 to 7.2 ± 0.27 which showed high acidity for POME contaminated soils and an alkaline pH for the control sample. Moisture content was between 21.5 ± 2.01 % to 35.2 ± 2.35 %, TOC ranged between 2.52 ± 0.21 % to 4.43 ±0 .14 %, nitrate and phosphate concentrations were between 1.18 ± 0.14 mg/kg to 3.22 ± 0.12 mg/kg and 1.57 ± 0.01 mg/kg to 2.52 ± 0.14 mg/kg respectively. The total heterotrophic bacteria count ranged from 2.8 × 10⁵ ± 1.13 cfu/g – 5.2 × 10⁵ ± 1.18 cfu/g, total coliform count ranged from 2.0 × 10⁵ ± 1.01 cfu/g – 3.7 × 10⁵ ± 1.11 cfu/g, total hydrocarbon utilizing bacterial count ranged from 0.5 × 10⁵ ± 0.41 cfu/g – 2.0 × 10⁵ ± 0.14 cfu/g, total fungal count ranged from 2.1 × 10³ ± 0.84 cfu/g – 2.0 × 10⁴ ± 0.13 cfu/g and total hydrocarbon utilizing fungal count ranged from 0.7 × 10³ ± 0.03 cfu/g – 1.5 × 10³ ± 0.26 cfu/g. This study revealed some of the effects of POME contamination in soils which are soil acidity, moisture, nitrate and phosphate reduction, fluctuating TOC, reduction in bacterial population and increased fungal population. These effects can cause shift in the indigenous microbial community diversity of the soil and low soil infertility. Hence, there is need to sensitize these farmers on the need to properly treat their POME before discharge into the environment.

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WSN 189 (2024) 200-211

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