Evaluation of biodegradability of phenol and bisphenol A during mesophilic and thermophilic municipal solid waste anaerobic digestion using 13C-labeled contaminants

Abstract

In this paper, the isotopic tracing using 13C-labeled phenol and bisphenol A was used to study their biodegradation during anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste. Microcosms were incubated anaerobically at 35°C (mesophilic conditions) and 55°C (thermophilic conditions) without steering. A continuous follow-up of the production of biogas (CH4 and CO2), was carried out during 130d until the establishment of stable methanogenesis. Then 13C12-BPA, and 13C6-phenol were injected in microcosms and the follow-up of their degradation was performed simultaneously by gas chromatography isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (GC–IRMS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Moreover, Carbon-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (13C-NMR) Spectroscopy is used in the identification of metabolites. This study proves that the mineralization of phenol to CO2 and CH4 occurs during anaerobic digestion both in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions with similar kinetics. In mesophilic condition phenol degradation occurs through the benzoic acid pathway. In thermophilic condition it was not possible to identify the complete metabolic pathway as only acetate was identified as metabolite. Our results suggest that mineralization of phenol under thermophilic condition is instantaneous explaining why metabolites are not observed as they do not accumulate. No biodegradation of BPA was observed.