Abstract
The possibility of removing bisphenol A and its five potential substitutes (bisphenols S, F, AF, E, and B) was tested using microorganism consortia from river water and activated sludge from municipal and rural wastewater treatment plants. For most bisphenols, biodegradation with activated sludge was faster than with river water and a greater extent of biodegradation was also achieved. However, only bisphenol A and bisphenol F underwent 100% primary biodegradation while other bisphenols degraded no more than about 50% which has some important implications in case of their increased usage. Metabolic activity in biodegradation liquors was also tested and it showed higher activity in the tests with activated sludge than with river water. However, there was no clear connection between the decline of metabolic activity and the extent of biodegradation as decreased activity was observed for two easily degrading bisphenols and two others with little biodegradability. It can be assumed that two different phenomena are involved in this process including depletion of nutrients for easily degradable bisphenol A and absence of nutrients for bacteria incapable of primary degradation of bisphenol AF and bisphenol S.
Highlights
Bisphenols are a group of compounds containing two phenyl rings connected to each other with a small linking group (Fig. 1)
There may be two reasons for less biodegradation of bisphenol A (BPA) observed in the present study: lesser amounts of bacteria present in the river water than in the media inoculated with activated sludge from the two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) or less biodiversity of bacteria from the river water used in the test
It was found that only BPA and bisphenol F (BPF) undergo complete primary biodegradation supporting the possibility of removal of these compounds from the environment
Summary
Bisphenols are a group of compounds containing two phenyl rings connected to each other with a small linking group (Fig. 1). The most widely used in industry is bisphenol A (BPA), which was discovered in 1891 [1]. Annual production of BPA in 2015 was estimated. BPA belongs to the class of endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) which are substances that can effectively disturb the endocrine system [4]. The first report on endocrine-disrupting properties of bisphenols included the entire range of other organic compounds containing phenyl groups [5]. BPA, because of its large and widespread usage, is a great threat to the environment even though its estimated hormonal agonistic activity is much less than that of the natural hormone 17βestradiol [7]
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