Degradation of nitroesters by plant tissue cultures

Abstract

Nitrate esters are widely used as effective explosives, important components of explosive ranges, and energetic plasticizers. The environmental problem arising from the production and use of these compounds can be solved using biotechnology. Phytoremediation appears as an efficient technology for this purpose. The uptake and transformation of nitroglycerine (NG) and ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN) from wastewater by plants using in vitro regenerants of Juncus inflexus and Phragmites australis were investigated. The plants were exposed to the NG, (600mgl−1), the parent compound disappeared during 20 days and degradation products as dinitroglycerine (DNG) and mononitroglycerine (MNG) were identified in the medium. During 20 days the starting concentration of 100mgl−1 EGDN disappeared in the case of J. inflexus or decreased to 5% in the case of P. australis. Ethylene glycol mononitrate as the degradation product was identified.Using this approach directly to the wastewater from production of explosives, the starting concentration of nitroesters mixture (total concentration 270mgl−1) was decreased by in vitro regenerants of reed (P. australis) during 6 weeks to the water contained only MNG (48mgl−1).