Photooxidation vs Biodegradation: A Short Review on Fate of Heavy Hydrocarbons after Oil Spill in Sea Water

摘要

In August 2019, the Brazilian coast, especially the north-eastern coast, was contaminated by a dense mass of extra-heavy oil, causing environmental and social disturbances of different orders, with deleterious effects that will have impacts for many decades to come. After exposure in the marine environment by recalcitrant hydrocarbons, the fate of these compounds will depend on certain abiotic factors that may increase the bioavailability of these molecules, favoring the biological transformations of the removal of the contaminant, carried out by competent hydrocarbonoclastic microbes. This work presents a brief history of the greatest accidents at sea involving crude oil spills. Further, we defend a fundamental convergence of photo-oxidation and the metabolism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as natural mechanisms for removing heavy oil..