The biodegradation of mixtures of organic solvents by mixed and monocultures of bacteria

✍ Scribed by Urs Bitzi; Thomas Egli; Geoffrey Hamer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 575 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/bit.260371108

✦ Synopsis

Much more information concerning the biodegradation kinetics of mixtures of common industrial chemicals, such as organic solvents, needs to be gathered before wastewater biotreatment process performance can become a matter of design. Here, the biooxidation of a solvent mixture comprizing methanol, acetone, isopropanol, and methylene chloride is examined. The fact that the enrichment culture obtained comprized only two solvent-utilizing strains, together with only minor percentages of nonsolvent utilizing satellite strains, was contrary to the theory of microbial competition. In addition, the complex relationship between the two solvent-utilizing strains indicates that further work is necessary on the pathways involved in isopropanol and acetone biooxidation and on the effects of operating conditions on the fluxes along such pathways.