Evaluation of diesel degradation potential of Klebsiella pneumoniae strain VM18 isolated from petroleum contaminated soil of Mathura

The present investigation was conducted to isolate, characterize and identify one of the best bio degrader bacterial isolate and to measure its biodegradation capacity. Klebsiella pneumoniae strain VM18 was the isolated bacteria which showed the degradation efficacy of 62.84% after 35^th day of incubation in Bushnell Hass medium. GC-MS analysis reveals that, Klebsiella pneumoniae strain VM18 degraded C₅₁-C₆₀ fraction from 2.54% to 1.49% and converted them into C₃₁-C₅₀ after 21 days of incubation. This can be concluded that bacterial strains have potential to degrade the petroleum hydrocarbons present in contaminated soil environment.