Among four crude oil-degrading fungi strains that were isolated from a petroleum-polluted area in the Rumaila oil field, two fungi strains showed high activity in aliphatic hydrocarbon degradation. ITS sequencing and analysis of morphological and biochemical characteristics identified these strains as Penicillium sp. RMA1 and RMA2. Gravimetric and gas chromatography analysis of the crude oil remaining in the culture medium after 14 days of incubation at 30 °C showed that RMA1 and RMA2 degraded the crude oil by 57% and 55%, respectively. These strains reduced surface tension when cultured on crude oil (1% v/v) and exhibited a cell surface hydrophobicity of more than 70%. These results suggested that RMA1 and RMA2 performed effective crude oil-degrading activity and crude oil emulsification. In conclusion, these fungal strains can be used in bioremediation process and oil pollution reduction in aquatic ecosystems.

The preparation of nitrogen-doped activated carbon (NACs) has received significant attention because of their applications in CO₂ capture and sequestration (CCS) owing to abundant nitrogen atoms on their surface and controllable pore structures by carefully controlled carbonization. We report high-surface-area porous N-doped activated carbons (NAC) by using soft-template-assisted self-assembly followed by thermal decomposition and KOH activation. The activation process was carried out under different temperature conditions (600–800 °C) using polyimine as precursor. The NAC-800 was found to have a high specific surface area (1900 m² g⁻¹), a desirable micropore size below 1 nm and, more importantly, a large micropore volume (0.98 cm³ g⁻¹). NAC-800 also exhibits a significant capacity of CO₂ capture i.e., over 6. 25 and 4.87 mmol g⁻¹ at 273 K and 298 K respectively at 1.13 bar, which is one of among the highest values reported for porous carbons so far. Moreover, NAC also shows an excellent separation selectivity for CO₂ over N₂.