Biodegradation Kinetics Research Articles

Unravelling biodegradation and toxin release kinetics of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)-based biocomposites in a simulated rumen environment: A preliminary study

The development of completely digestible rumino-reticulum devices (RRDs) able to slowly release natural toxins in bovine rumen has been proposed to be a sustainable strategy to control Pimelea poisoning among graving cattle caused by toxic grasses endemic in Australia. Three pioneer biocomposites were extruded from the plant particles of the toxic plant Pimelea trichostachya and the biodegradable biopolymer poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-1 mol% 3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV), with or without sucrose and starch as pore forming agents. To understand the biodegradation and toxin release mechanisms of these emerging materials in a rumen environment, these biocomposites were incubated, along with pristine PHBV as reference, in an in vitro anaerobic bioreactor simulating the rumen fermentation process. It was shown that surface erosion was the dominant pattern of biodegradation for all the biocomposites, through a series of comprehensive analyses on micro- and macroscopic scales. X-ray computed tomography scanning (μ-CT) observations and the biodegradation kinetic modelling results confirmed that porogen leaching introduced more interior surface areas but did not accelerate the biodegradation rate significantly. Competing phenomena of toxin adsorption and release from the biocomposites were also revealed. This study not only provided guidance in further tailoring the toxin release behaviours and assessing the end-of-life of these biocomposites, but could also be beneficial for constructing PHBV based-RRDs with other purposes.

Removal of H2S in an extremely acidic-biotrickling filter: Evaluation of removal performance and characterization of microbial communities

A cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and extremely acidic biotrickling filter is essential for desulfurization to recover elemental sulfur and sulfate for extensively remediating H2S. The present study investigated the H2S removal capacity, accumulation of desulfurization products, sulfur balance, microbial community, and the H2S biodegradation kinetics. The results showed that when the empty bed retention time (EBRT) decreased from 180 s to 60 s, the removal efficiency of H2S decreased from 100% to 95.4%, and the elimination capacity increased from 18.0 ± 1.3–51.5 ± 3.2 gH2S m–3 h–1. Furthermore, with the increase of EBRT, the proportion of SO42–-S in the biodesulfurization products gradually decreased from 74.83% to 38.71%, whereas that of S0-S increased from 16.04% to 53.30%. The content of polysaccharide (PS), protein (PN), and the change of PN/PS values during the H2S removal process were studied. Moreover, 16 S rRNA high-throughput sequencing analysis showed that Acidithiobacillus, Thiobacillus, Sulfuricurvum, and Sulfobacillus were the main genera in the removal of H2S, and their total abundance was higher than 68.00%. In addition, the system viability and robustness were proved by shock loads and starvation regimes.

New insights into lincomycin biodegradation by Conexibacter sp. LD01: Genomics characterization, biodegradation kinetics and pathways

The aerobic, lincomycin-degrading bacterial strain Conexibacter sp. LD01, belonging to the phylum Actinobacteria, was isolated from activated sludge. Both second- and third-generation sequencing technologies were applied to uncover the genomic characterization and high-quality genome with 99.2% completeness and 2.2% contamination was obtained. The biodegradation kinetics of lincomycin fit well with the modified Gompertz model (R2 > 0.97). Conexibacter sp. LD01 could subsist with lincomycin as the sole source of carbon, nitrogen, and energy. When 500 mg/L of glucose was added as a co-substrate, the biodegradation rate improved significantly, whereas the addition of 500 mg/L sodium pyruvate had a slight inhibitory effect. Ammonia nitrogen was the best nitrogen source for Conexibacter sp. LD01 when growing and degrading lincomycin. In total, 17 metabolic products consisting of nine novel products were detected, and five biodegradation pathways, including N-demethylation, breakage of the amido bond, sulfoxidation, and oxidation of the pyrrolidine ring and propylamino chain, were proposed. This study significantly expands our understanding of the functional microorganisms and mechanism involved in lincomycin biodegradation at the phylum level.

Biodegradation kinetics and metabolism of Benzo(a)fluorene by Pseudomonas strains isolated from refinery effluent

The final sinkers of polyaromatic hydrocarbons are water sources, where they undergo bioaccumulation and biomagnification, leading to adverse mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic effects on exposure in flora, fauna, and humans. Two indigenous strains, Pseudomonas sp. WDE11 and Pseudomonas sp. WD23, isolated from refinery effluent, degraded over 97.5% of benzo(a)fluorene (10 mg/L) in 7 days. On growth at concentration dependent amounts (50 mg/L and 100 mg/L), the degradation reduced to approximately 90% and 80% respectively in 56 days. Degradation kinetics was concentration dependent, as degradation followed first-order and second-order kinetics for 50 mg/L and 100 mg/L respectively. The half-life for degradation of benzo(a)fluorene ranged between 11.64 - 12.26 days and 13.11–14.5 days for strains WDE11 and WD23 respectively. The values of Andrew-Haldane kinetic parameters i.e. μmax, Ks, and Ki were 0.306 day−1, 11.11 mg/L, and 120.41 mg/L for strain WDE11 respectively, while for strain WD23, the respective values were 0.312 day−1, 9.97 mg/L, and 152 mg/L. Degradation metabolites were identified by their MS patterns as 3,4-dihydroxy fluorene, 2-(1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-2-yl) acetic acid, 3,4-dihydrocoumarin, salicylic acid, catechol, and oxalic acid. Metabolic pathway of degradation constructed, revealed that benzo(a)fluorene was metabolized via the formation of fluorene, further metabolized by salicylate pathway forming catechol. The catechol formed was degraded into simpler metabolites by meta-cleavage pathway, which was validated by catechol 2,3 dioxygenase enzyme activity.

Impacts of algal organic matter and humic substances on microcystin-LR removal and their biotransformation during the biodegradation process

The application of bioaugmentation (i.e., injection of contaminant-degrading microorganisms) has shown its potential to remove harmful cyanotoxins like microcystin-LR (MC-LR) from drinking water sources. However, the natural organic matter (NOM) present in both natural and engineered water systems might affect the bacterial biodegradation of MC-LR. Therefore, for the successful application of bioaugmentation for MC-LR removal in water treatment, it is important to understand NOM effects on MC-LR biodegradation. In this study, the impact of NOM [algal organic matter (AOM) and humic substances (HS)] on MC-LR biodegradation was evaluated in the presence of varying concentrations of NOM by monitoring MC-LR biodegradation kinetics. The changes in NOM composition during MC-LR biodegradation were also characterized by a five-component Parallel factor (PARAFAC) model using 336 excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectra collected at different sampling points. Our results showed decreases in MC-LR biodegradation rate of 1.6-and 3.4-fold in the presence of AOM and HS, respectively. The expression of the functional mlrA gene exhibited a similar trend to the MC-LR degradation rate at different NOM concentrations. EEM-PARAFAC analyses and NOM molecular size fractionation results indicated a relatively greater production of terrestrial humic-like components (57%) and a decrease of protein-like components. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) analyses further confirmed that low molecular weight protein-like components were initially utilized by bacteria, followed by the formation of higher molecular weight humic-like components, likely due to microbial metabolism.

Correlating biodegradation kinetics of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin to the dynamics of microbial communities originating from soil in Vietnam contaminated with herbicides and dioxins.

We studied the succession of bacterial communities during the biodegradation of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD). The communities originated from a mesocosm with soil from Bien Hoa airbase in Vietnam heavily contaminated with herbicides and dioxins. They were grown in defined media with different carbon and Gibbs energy sources and 2,3,7,8-TCDD. Cultures with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the sole carbon and energy source degraded about 95% of 2,3,7,8-TCDD within 60 days of cultivation. Those with an additional 1 mM of vanillin did that in roughly 90 days. Further 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing showed that the increase in relative abundance of members belonging to the genera Bordetella, Sphingomonas, Proteiniphilum, and Rhizobium correlated to increased biodegradation of 2,3,7,8-TCDD in these cultures. A higher concentration of vanillin slowed down the biodegradation rate. Addition of alternative carbon and Gibbs energy sources, such as amino acids, sodium lactate and sodium acetate, even stopped the degradation of 2,3,7,8-TCDD completely. Bacteria from the genera Bordetella, Achromobacter, Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas dominated most of the cultures, but the microbial profiles also significantly differed between cultures as judged by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analyses. Our study indicates that 2,3,7,8-TCDD degradation may be stimulated by bacterial communities preadapted to a certain degree of starvation with respect to the carbon and energy source. It also reveals the succession and abundance of defined bacterial genera in the degradation process.

Dynamic and Self-Healable Chitosan/Hyaluronic Acid-Based In Situ-Forming Hydrogels.

In situ-forming, biodegradable, and self-healing hydrogels, which maintain their integrity after damage, owing to dynamic interactions, are essential biomaterials for bioapplications, such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. This work aims to develop in situ, biodegradable and self-healable hydrogels based on dynamic covalent bonds between N-succinyl chitosan (S-CHI) and oxidized aldehyde hyaluronic acid (A-HA). A robust effect of the molar ratio of both S-CHI and A-HA was observed on the swelling, mechanical stability, rheological properties and biodegradation kinetics of these hydrogels, being the stoichiometric ratio that which leads to the lowest swelling factor (×12), highest compression modulus (1.1·10−3 MPa), and slowest degradation (9 days). Besides, a rapid (3 s) self-repairing ability was demonstrated in the macro scale as well as by rheology and mechanical tests. Finally, the potential of these biomaterials was evidenced by cytotoxicity essay (>85%).

Biodegradation and optimization of bilge water in a sequencing batch reactor using response surface methodology

Bilge water is a significant source of pollution in the marine environment and has captured widespread international attention. In this study, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) combined with strain S2 identified as Bacillus licheniformis was employed to assess the biodegradation of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) from bilge water. The influencing variables such as temperature, pH level and inoculum concentration on the performance SBR system were optimized by utilizing response surface methodology (RSM). The experimental results showed that the maximum COD removal of 77.81% was reached at the optimal SBR operation conditions of temperature 35.44 °C pH 8.13, and inoculum concentration 31.47 mL. In the practical application of SBR, it was found that the decrease in hydraulic retention time (HRT) was accompanied by a decrease in COD degradation rate. The biodegradation kinetics of COD in bilge water were well fitted with the first–order equation with a higher R2 value of 0.98106. In conclusion, COD in bilge water can be efficiently biodegraded by SBR under the optimization of RSM.

Evaluation of the biodegradability of a heat-treated anaerobic inoculum

The citrus industry produces a considerable amount of solid and liquid waste, which are mostly wasted. Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge is an attractive option as it can produce fuels in the form of methane gas. However, the presence of complex organic compounds and pathogenic microorganisms significantly hinders the effectiveness of this process. The objective of this work is the selection of a source of inoculum free of pathogenic microorganisms by means of a thermal pretreatment and in this way is conducive to the treatment of residual sludge from the Citrus industry. The inoculum was taken from a geomembrane reactor which uses cattle manure as a substrate. 6 biodegradability kinetics were performed, varying the substrate-inoculum ratio, three of them with inoculum without pretreatment and another three with treatment, all under mesophilic conditions. SV parameters, pH, and biogas production were determined.

Biodegradation kinetics of binary mixture of hexadecane and phenanthrene by the bacterial microconsortium

Crude oil bioremediation requires a correct selection of potential biodegraders to address the hazard. The present study investigates biodegradation kinetics of single aliphatic (Hexadecane, HEX), aromatic (Phenanthrene, PHE), and binary mixture (HEX + PHE) as co-contaminants by axenic cultures of A. fabrum SLAJ 731, B. subtilis RSL2 and P. aeruginosa P7815 and their consortium. A proposed integrated kinetic model combining first-order exponential decay and the Monod equation is well-fitted to degradation data. Maximum degradations of both the substrates were observed for microcosm, indicating synergistic effects of selected strains. The degradation rate indicated parallel utilization of HEX while serial utilization of PHE by selected strains. Maximum HEX and PHE degradations of 92.4 and 88.7 % were achieved by microconsortium, which increased to 97.2 and 91.9 % for the binary mixture. The biodegradation efficiencies of HEX and PHE were linearly correlated with Alkane hydroxylase and Catechol-2,3-dioxygenase activities, respectively.

Electromagnetic Properties Monitoring to Detect Different Biodegradation Kinetics in Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soil

The electromagnetic properties (electrical permittivity and electrical conductivity) of three different soil mesocosms polluted with diesel oil were monitored using a time-domain reflectometry probe for 8 months. The main target of the research was to establish a relationship between the development of biological activity within the mesocosms and the temporal behaviour of electromagnetic properties. The trend of the electromagnetic properties exhibited different responses that could be related to the composition of the mesocosms and their variation with time during the runs. We considered three different mesocosms with similar soil conditions and the same diesel oil concentration: porosity of 45%, volumetric diesel oil content of 9%, and volumetric water content of 15%. The first one was subjected to a natural attenuation (NA), the second one was biostimulated without inoculation (BS), and the third one was biostimulated with inoculation (BS + IN). The biostimulated mesocosms showed a marked decrease in electrical permittivity and electrical conductivity, whereas the naturally attenuated mesocosm did not show these variations. Between the biostimulated mesocosms, the inoculated one showed the fastest variations in the electromagnetic properties. The microbial activity and the pollutant degradation were evidenced by the analyses performed at the end of the experiment. As demonstrated by the results for the fluorescein diacetate analysis, the microbial activity was a bit higher for the inoculated microcosm, which also showed faster variations of the electromagnetic properties. In the biostimulated mesocosms, the removal of diesel oil was 66% and 72%, respectively. With natural attenuation, there was a limited removal efficiency, in the order of 2%. Even if the electromagnetic properties evidenced different kinetics of bioremediation in BS and BS + IN, both were able to successfully degrade similar percentages of the contaminant after 8 months. The long monitoring revealed that a substantial decrease in the electromagnetic properties happened only in the first month after contamination. Additionally, an increasing trend of the permittivity was detected in the following months, before reaching a steady-state condition. This study revealed that biodegradation processes with acceptable overall removal efficiency can be monitored successfully by observing the variations in the electromagnetic properties.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate Pellets as Novel Immobilization Medium for Phenol Biodegradation by Activated Sludge

Biofilm enhances the performances of biological wastewater treatment systems. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) pellets as novel biofilm carrier for phenol biodegradation. Two identical laboratory-scale reactors were operated with fill, react, settle, draw and idle periods in the ratio of 2:12:2:1:7 for a 24-h cycle. One reactor was supplemented with 2% (v/v) of PHA pellet and operated as sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR), whereas the other reactor was operated as sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and used as the control reactor. The performances of SBBR and SBR in degrading phenol were studied at three phases with the introduction of 300, 500 and 1000 mg L-1 phenol, respectively. The removal of phenol was found best described using zero-order kinetics, with R2 > 0.97. At all phases, the phenol removal rate during react period for SBBR (7.30 ± 0.55 to 9.33 ± 1.06 mg L-1 min-1) was found higher compared to those for SBR (4.28 ± 0.66 to 8.35 ± 0.68 mg L-1 min-1), with significance difference observed at low phenol concentration. Whereas for chemical oxygen demand biodegradation kinetics, SBRR exhibited significantly higher rate compared to SBR at all phases. From the scanning electron microscopy image, the attachment of activated sludge onto PHA pellet was observed. The results indicated the potential of PHA serving as alternative biofilm carrier in biofilm process.

Kinetic modelling of high concentration 4-Nitrophenol biodegradation by an isolated bacterial consortium and post-treatment ecotoxicity analysis

The present study documents the kinetics of aerobic batch growth and biodegradation of 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) by an isolated bacterial consortium capable of utilizing 700 mg l−1 of 4-NP as the sole source of carbon and energy, the highest reported concentration to be biodegraded till date. The results of the batch biodegradation studies suggested that the consortium exhibited substrate inhibition kinetics and the Haldane model fitted the experimental data well. The estimated biokinetic parameters applied to biomass growth were maximum specific growth rate, μmax = 0.1532 h−1, half saturation coefficient, Ks = 4.717 mg l−1, and inhibition coefficient, Ki = 77.34 mg l−1. The specific degradation rate, q, was fitted to the model, and the kinetic parameters obtained were: qmax = 0.1700 g g−1 h−1, K's = 5.871 mg l−1, and K'i = 171.9 mg l−1. The yield coefficient (YX/S) varied in the range of 0.93–0.23 g g−1 for 12–700 mg l−1 4-NP concentration. The maintenance coefficient (m) and true yield (YG) were calculated to be 0.04491 h−1 and 0.9496 g g−1, respectively, based on the Pirt's equation. Furthermore, cytotoxicity and phytotoxicity assessment involving the animal cell line HEK293 and different seed variants, respectively, confirmed the detoxification of the biodegraded product, emphasizing the biocatalytic efficiency of the consortium in the bioremediation of 4-NP contaminated wastewater and suitability of its environmental discharge.

Biodegradation Kinetics of Phenol and 4-Chlorophenol in the Presence of Sodium Salicylate in Batch and Chemostat Systems

The biodegradation of phenol, sodium salicylate (SA), and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) by Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) was evaluated by batch and chemostat experiments in single and binary substrate systems. The Haldane kinetics model for cell growth was chosen to describe the batch kinetic behavior to determine kinetic parameters in the single or binary substrates system. In the single phenol and SA system, the kinetic constants of μm,P = 0.423 h−1, μm,A = 0.247 h−1, KS,P = 48.1 mg/L, KS,A = 71.7 mg/L, KI,P = 272.5 mg/L, and KI,A = 3178.2 mg/L were evaluated. Experimental results indicate that SA was degraded more rapidly by P. putida cells compared to phenol because SA has a much larger KI value than phenol, which makes the cells less sensitive to substrate inhibition even though the μm,P value is larger compared to μm,A. The ratio of inhibition of phenol degradation due to the presence of SA (IA1) to the inhibition of SA degradation due to the presence of phenol (IA2) is 2.3, indicating that SA has a higher uncompetitive inhibition on phenol biodegradation compared to that of phenol on SA biodegradation in the binary substrate system. In the ternary substrate system, the time required for the complete degradation of SA and phenol was 14 and 11.5 d and an approximately 90% removal efficiency for 4-CP was achieved within 14 d. In the chemostat system, the removal rates of phenol and SA were 96.6 and 97.0%, while those of SA and 4-CP were 91.4% and 95.2%, respectively. The model prediction agreed satisfactorily with the experimental results of the chemostat system.

Integrated two-phase acidogenic-methanogenic treatment of municipal sludge with thermal hydrolysis

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of two process configurations integrating two-phase anaerobic digestion (AD) of municipal sludge with thermal hydrolysis (TH). The TH was positioned either before or after the acidogenic fermentation phase. The fermentation process was carried out under the semi-continuous flow regime with a retention time of three days. The TH was done at a temperature of 170 °C and for 30 min. Among all the tested scenarios, the TH of sludge followed by the acidogenic fermentation resulted in the highest COD solubilization ratio (39.5%) and volatile fatty acids production (6,420 ± 400 mg/L), which was 630% and 500% more than that of the raw sludge, respectively. The sequential TH/fermentation process achieved 40% higher ultimate methane yield (240 mL/g COD) than the non-pretreated (raw) sludge. Positioning TH after the fermentation process reduced the ultimate methane yield to 231 240 mL/g COD, although it was still 32% higher than that of the raw sludge. The analysis of methane production rate and biodegradation kinetics data suggested the formation of refractory intermediates during the thermal process of sludge, which reduced the overall performance rate during the first week of the AD process. It was also revealed that acidogenic fermentation of thermally-processed sludge could diminish the adverse effect of the recalcitrant compounds formed during the thermal hydrolysis on the subsequent AD process.

Stoichiometric ratios for biotics and xenobiotics capture effective metabolic coupling to re(de)fine biodegradation

Preserving human and environmental health requires anthropogenic pollutants to be biologically degradable. Depending on concentration, both nutrients and pollutants induce and activate metabolic capacity in the endemic bacterial consortium, which in turn aids their degradation. Knowledge on such ‘acclimation’ is rarely implemented in risk assessment cost-effectively. As a result, an accurate description of the mechanisms and kinetics of biodegradation remains problematic.In this study, we defined a yield ‘effectivity’, comprising the effectiveness at which a pollutant (substrate) enhances its own degradation by inducing (biomass) cofactors involved therein. Our architecture for calculation represents the interplay between concentration and metabolism via both stoichiometric and thermodynamic concepts. The calculus for yield ‘effectivity’ is biochemically intuitive, implicitly embeds co-metabolism and distinguishes ‘endogenic’ from ‘exogenic’ substances’ reflecting various phenomena in biodegradation and bio-transformation studies.We combined data on half-lives of pollutants/nutrients in wastewater and surface water with transition-state rate theory to obtain also experimental values for effective yields. These quantify the state of acclimation: the portion of biodegradation kinetics attributable to (contributed by) ‘natural metabolism’, in view of similarity to natural substances. Calculated and experimental values showed statistically significant correspondence. Particularly, carbohydrate metabolism and nucleic acid metabolism appeared relevant for acclimation (R2 = 0.11–0.42), affecting rates up to 104.9(±0.7) times: under steady-state acclimation, a compound stoichiometrically identical to carbohydrates or nucleic acids, is 103.2 to 104.9 times faster aerobically degraded than a compound marginally similar.Our new method, simulating (contribution by) the state of acclimation, supplements existing structure-biodegradation and kinetic models for predicting biodegradation in wastewater and surface water. The accuracy of prediction may increase when characterizing nutrients/co-metabolites in terms of, e.g., elemental analysis. We discuss strengths and limitations of our approach by comparison to empirical and mechanism-based methods.

Pretreatment methods to enhance solubilization and anaerobic biodegradability of lignocellulosic biomass (wheat straw): Progress and challenges

Agro-waste (wheat straw) is considered most effective (heating value 16 MJ/kg) for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion (AD). However, the complex lignocellulosic structure obstructs their biotransformation and is a rate-limiting step of the AD process. The pretreatment of agro-waste could remove the physical and chemical barriers and accelerate the downstream AD process. The physical pretreatments (mechanical, thermal, sonication) improve the biodegradation kinetics of wheat straw (>50% and can reach up to 92%) but require more energy. High external or internal heat sources may lead to the formation of recalcitrant compounds, i.e., furan derivatives from cellulose. Chemical pretreatment is effective for rapid reaction rate but is uneconomical due to high chemical cost. It may produce toxic intermediary products, and hinder microbial activities in AD. The ionic liquids are emerging chemical pretreatment and are renewable, recoverable, difficult to oxidize, and bio-based salts. The chemical pretreatment induces cellulose loss up to 59% and lignin up to 69%, while the bio-degradability is as high as 88.3%. In biological pretreatment, bacterial pretreatment is superior to fungal and algal pretreatments, and also helps in the substrate bio-degradation during AD. The FTIR, TGA-DTG, XRD, and SEM technologies can validate the efficiency of the pretreatment method, such as modifications in lignocellulosic functional groups, mass loss, crystal feature, surface topography, and morphology of lignocellulosic biomass. Different mathematical models, especially the modified Gompertz model, are employed to facilitate the insight into the AD research. Energy use and balance are necessary for the pretreatment process to figure out the real synergic effects rather than aiming to achieve enhanced methane production.

Kinetics of MSW Biodegradation with Different Inocula In Laboratory In-Vessel Reactor

The in-vessel composting is considered as an environmentally sound method for the treatment and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as it produces good quality compost with lesser environmental impacts. In this study, the process was accelerated and the composting time was reduced using various industrial organic wastes as inoculums in a vertical in-vessel reactor with stirrer arrangement. This study examined the process kinetics which aims to show the interdependency between biological, chemical & physical factors. It is also the extension of the previous work which dealt with composting of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The rate of degradation of volatile solids, TOC and C/N ratio are presented in First-order kinetic model and reaction rate constants are determined. The different inoculums used are yeast sludge, spent wash, distillery effluent and sugar sludge. Yeast sludge has the highest R2 values such as 0.979, 0.978 and 0.986 for VS, TOC and C/N ratio respectively. The R2 value of C/N ratio for the sugar sludge is 0.983. From the kinetic study, it can be concluded that the yeast sludge can be a better option when compared with other sludge to accelerate the process of composting.

Co-metabolic biodegradation of 4-bromophenol in a mixture of pollutants system by Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6.

Brominated phenols are listed as priority pollutants together with nitrophenol and chlorophenol are the key components of paper pulp wastewater. However, the biodegradation of bromophenol in a mixed substrate system is very scanty. In the present investigation, simultaneous biodegradation kinetics of three substituted phenols 4-bromophenol (4-BP), 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) were investigated using Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6. A 23 full factorial design was applied with varying 4-BP and 4-CP from 75-125 mg/L and 4-NP from 50-100 mg/L. Almost complete degradation of this mixture of substituted phenols was achieved at initial concentration combinations of 125, 125, and 100 mg/L of 4-CP, 4-BP, and 4-NP, respectively, in 68 h. Statistical analysis of the results revealed that, among the three variables, 4-NP had the most prominent influence on the degradation of both 4-CP and 4-BP, while the concentration of 4-CP had a strong negative interaction effect on the biodegradation of 4-NP. Irrespective of the concentration levels of these three substrates, 4-NP was preferentially biodegraded over 4-CP and 4-BP. Furthermore, 4-BP biodegradation rates were found to be higher than those of 4-CP, followed by 4-NP. Besides, the variation of the biomass yield coefficient of the culture was investigated at different initial concentration combinations of these substituted phenols. Although the actinomycetes consumed 4-NP at a faster rate, the biomass yield was very poor. This revealed that the microbial cells were more stressed when grown on 4-NP compared to 4-BP and 4-CP. Overall, this study revealed the potential of A. chlorophenolicus A6 for the degradation of 4-BP in mixed substrate systems.

Elucidating Biodegradation Kinetics and Biomethane Potential Trends in Substrates Containing High Levels of Phytochemicals: The Case of Avocado Oil Processing By-products

Elucidating Biodegradation Kinetics and Biomethane Potential Trends in Substrates Containing High Levels of Phytochemicals: The Case of Avocado Oil Processing By-products