Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am a 16 year old student from Malaysia and I am submiting the project proposal on 20th March 2009.
I am planning to carry out a project about the breakdown of used motor oil using enzymes (especially bromelain or papain).
I already know that bioremediation and bioaugmentation already exist.
However, since Malaysia has plenty of pineapples and papayas, coupled with a growing motor-oil pollution problem, I am interested in harnessing the natural sources available to breakdown used motor oil into simpler and harmless products and hence reduce pollution.
According to research, nonaromatic hydrocarbons such as butane and methane can now be used to breakdown used motor oil.
The ratio required for the breakdown of motor oil by the nonaromatic hydrocarbons is 10:i (10 part hydrocarbon, 1 part used motor oil)
The question now is: What is the best ratio of enzymes to motor oil in order for enzymes to effectively breakdown used motor oil?

thank you.

Hi,

Enzymatic breakdown o f used motor oil certainly sounds like a great green idea. I found this site that talks about the commercial application of it:

http://www.cims.rit.edu/ne/pubs/NC3R_3enzymatic_web.pdf

http://www.golfyellowpages.com/business ... 3-0-0.html

My primary concern when I read your post was whether bromelain would be active on motoroil as a substrate. Bromelain is primarily active as a protease, ie it breaks down proteans (amide bond from amino group to carboxylic acid). Is it also active on esters (oxygen bridge between alcohol and carboxylic acid)? Motor oils contain almost zero proteins, but are primarily long chain hydrocarbons with possibly some fats (esters between long chain alcohols and long chain carboxylic acids). Long chain hydrocarbons are quite inert against enzymes under most circumstances.

It is possible bromelain has some esterase activity, though I am not sure. When I did a google search on bromelain esterase activity I found some related hits:

http://jb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/conten ... 139/6/1065

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=871737

http://www.biochemj.org/bj/143/0575/1430575.pdf

http://publications.cirad.fr/une_notice.php?dk=476989

The following may be of interest in terms of bioremediation of motor oil contamination:

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10 ... 4773087345

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/abs ... ipekun.htm

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/t ... 5/art00009

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18819655

http://www.scialert.net/pdfs/pjbs/2008/ ... Hgh76JG7Ff

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2007/Projects/J0901.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rr ... oremed.pdf

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/1999 ... ts/group4/

In short, bioremedial or motoroil contaminated soil is a superb project idea, but from what I can find, using bromelain is probably not going to be very successful. Sorry.

Best of luck developing a dynamite project!

Barrett Tomlinson

PROJECT:using enzymes to breakdown used motor oil

I am a 16 year old student from Malaysia and I am submitting the project proposal on 20th March 2009.
I am planning to carry out a project about the breakdown of used motor oil using enzymes (especially bromelain or papain).
I already know that bioremediation and bioaugmentation already exist.
However, since Malaysia has plenty of pineapples and papayas, coupled with a growing motor-oil pollution problem, I am interested in harnessing the natural sources available to breakdown used motor oil into simpler and harmless products and hence reduce pollution.
According to research, nonaromatic hydrocarbons such as butane and methane can now be used to breakdown used motor oil.
The ratio required for the breakdown of motor oil by the nonaromatic hydrocarbons is 10:1 (10 part hydrocarbon, 1 part used motor oil)
The question now is: What is the best ratio of enzymes to motor oil in order for enzymes to effectively breakdown used motor oil?

thank you.

nleeyongsheng

Thanks for sending the links, I appreciate your effort.

However, I did come across a California State Science Fair 2006 Project Summary, number J0813, where the student concerned was carrying out a project to compare the effectiveness of enzymes as degradation agents in Motor Oil.

And, i did come across a website at http://www.primaryinfo.com/projects/bromelain.htm
where under one of the projects listed was a topic: The Effectiveness of Enzymes as Degradation Agents in Motor Oil
However, I have to order the CD-Rom in order to view the contents.

I hope you may help me verify the validity of these claims.
Thanks again.

Hi,

Here is a science fair project summary relevant to your question:

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2006/Projects/J0813.pdf

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2006/Projects/J0807.pdf

Here is a search of ask.com for bioremediation of petroleum:

http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=178&o=0&l=d ... 0petroleum

Paper describing growth of muchrooms on crude oil:

http://www.bioline.org.br/request?ja06030

An abstract of a paper surveying the microbial degradation of high molecular weight polycyclic hydrocarbons:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... 71d7a5591a

A full paper on this subject:

http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/full/182/8/2059

An abstract on oil eating fungi:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/92182958364w6363/

Paper on the use of a white rot fungus in bioremediation of motor oil:

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:ym ... cd=7&gl=us

Another paper on biodegradation of petroleum using bacteria:

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF ... t%20al.pdf

Here is a commercial source of bacteria for bioremediation:

http://www.united-tech.com/m-obt-toc.html

Here is the full text of a patent for laundry prespotting agent for removing oil stains using enzymes;

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... PN/4711739

And the full text of a patent on microbial degradation of petroleum:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... PN/4415661

I think this should be enough background to convince you that enzymatic/microbial or fungi degradation o f petroleum is real and practical, though bromelain is not the way to go. I wish you every success on this great project!!

Barrett Tomlinson

Hi nleeyongsheng,

Two questions:

1. What do you mean by "best?"
2. Can determining the "best" ratio be the basis of your project?

thanks for replying.

'best' here means: most effective/ ratio that produces the fastest reaction/ breaks down motor oil the fastest.
the question about the 'best' ratio is just ONE of the questions that I face in this project.
since the ratio for the most effective reaction between motor oil and nonaromatic hydrocarbon is 1:10,
so I was thinking if such a ratio exists for enzymes to motor oil as well.

do you have any information about that?

and besides, I need to set up a prototype of a enzyme-based 'motor-oil breakdown' device/machine/equipment.
could you help out with the ideas?

thank you

thanks a lot

Hi nleeyongsheng,

Thanks for the response, and you're welcome.

I'm sorry, I do not have any information on either the enzymes to motor oil ratio or a device/machine/equipment.

The only suggestion I have is to test different ratios and see which one is the best.

Maybe someone else will be able to help.

Hi,

I have merged the two topics on this project into a single topic so the experts can better help you--please keep future replies in this topic.