Introduction:

Rhamnolipids, microbial glycolipidic surfactants, possess excellent surface properties, are biodegradable, with low toxicity and high effectiveness under extreme conditions of pH, temperature and salinity. They exhibit antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi. Their use in bioremediation and biodegradation of hydrocarbons and the removal of heavy metals in contaminated environments are the most studied applications.

Objective:

To evaluate the biorestoration process of soils contaminated by the national oil industry by applying a rhamnolipid crude oil.

Methods:

It was used rhamnolipid crude from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Y3-B1A culture in mineral medium with glycerol as carbon source. It was determined the vanadium concentration by inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectroscopy, while biosurfactant effectiveness and analytical monitoring of biodegradation was evaluated gravimetrically.

Results:

It was achieved 85.4% vanadium removal. The use of biosurfactant crude Y3-B1A stimulated the biodegradation of hydrocarbons present in soils by 62%. The application of Y3-B1A crude oil in impacted soils in the Ñico López refinery in Havana, using the bio stimulation technique in plots; allowed reaching 34% of biodegradation for total and aromatic hydrocarbons, while it was 86% for the fraction of fats and oils.

Conclusions:

Biorestoration of ecosystems with rhamnolipids proved to be an environmentally friendly alternative with economic advantages. The obtained results conditioned the application of crude oil in the bioremediation of contaminated soils in the supertanker base of Matanzas and were introduced in undergraduate and graduate teaching in the universities of Oriente and La Habana.

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