Adsorption and desorption of pentachlorophenol on cells ofMycobacterium chlorophenolicum PCP-1

Bioaugmentation and phytoremediation wastewater treatment process as a viable alternative for pesticides removal: case of pentachlorophenol

This study focused on the potential for pentachlorophenol removal by a biological process in secondary treated wastewater (STWW). The proposed process is a combined method of phytoremediation using a native plant, Polypogon maritimus and Lemna minor, and bioaugmentation using a fungus. The bioaugmentation process was performed by a fungal isolate capable of removing PCP, isolated from the compost. The identification of the fungus was performed by morphological, biochemical, and molecular methods. A biological treatment system by bioaugmentation and phytoremediation was set up to estimate the capacity of this process to eliminate a high concentration of PCP. physico-chemical parameters, such as pH, COD, and BOD were tested at experimentation times T0 (initial) and Tf (final). The concentration of PCP is controlled by the HPLC method. Thus, the growth of the fungus was determined by spectrophotometry and enumeration on the agar medium. The results obtained show that the isolated and selected fungus is identified by Penicillium Ilerdanum. The fungal strain used has a significant capacity for tolerance and elimination of PCP. The results of the physico-chemical parameters showed an improvement in the quality of wastewater after the treatment was carried out. The elimination of PCP came with a release of Common law- and an important decrease in the DOC value in the STWW. The results obtained show that the Polypogon treatment shows a significant elimination of PCP by a percentage of the order of 92.01% and 23.58 g. L- 1 chloride concentration. The macrophytes used showed a better ability to tolerate and eliminate PCP with an increase of chlorophyll and its longer sheets.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40201-023-00865-y.

Sustainable Application of Biosorption and Bioaccumulation of Persistent Pollutants in Wastewater Treatment: Current Practice

Persistent toxic substances including persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals have been released in high quantities in surface waters by industrial activities. Their presence in environmental compartments is causing harmful effects both on the environment and human health. It was shown that their removal from wastewaters using conventional methods and adsorbents is not always a sustainable process. In this circumstance, the use of microorganisms for pollutants uptake can be seen as being an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective strategy for the treatment of industrial effluents. However, in spite of their confirmed potential in the remediation of persistent pollutants, microorganisms are not yet applied at industrial scale. Thus, the current paper aims to synthesize and analyze the available data from literature to support the upscaling of microbial-based biosorption and bioaccumulation processes. The industrial sources of persistent pollutants, the microbial mechanisms for pollutant uptake and the significant results revealed so far in the scientific literature are identified and covered in this review. Moreover, the influence of different parameters affecting the performance of the discussed systems and also very important in designing of treatment processes are highly considered. The analysis performed in the paper offers an important perspective in making decisions for scaling-up and efficient operation, from the life cycle assessment point of view of wastewater microbial bioremediation. This is significant since the sustainability of the microbial-based remediation processes through standardized methodologies such as life cycle analysis (LCA), hasn’t been analyzed yet in the scientific literature.

Microbial and Plant-Assisted Bioremediation of Heavy Metal Polluted Environments: A Review

Environmental pollution from hazardous waste materials, organic pollutants and heavy metals, has adversely affected the natural ecosystem to the detriment of man. These pollutants arise from anthropogenic sources as well as natural disasters such as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. Toxic metals could accumulate in agricultural soils and get into the food chain, thereby becoming a major threat to food security. Conventional and physical methods are expensive and not effective in areas with low metal toxicity. Bioremediation is therefore an eco-friendly and efficient method of reclaiming environments contaminated with heavy metals by making use of the inherent biological mechanisms of microorganisms and plants to eradicate hazardous contaminants. This review discusses the toxic effects of heavy metal pollution and the mechanisms used by microbes and plants for environmental remediation. It also emphasized the importance of modern biotechnological techniques and approaches in improving the ability of microbial enzymes to effectively degrade heavy metals at a faster rate, highlighting recent advances in microbial bioremediation and phytoremediation for the removal of heavy metals from the environment as well as future prospects and limitations. However, strict adherence to biosafety regulations must be followed in the use of biotechnological methods to ensure safety of the environment.

Optimization of the condition for adsorption of gallic acid by Aspergillus oryzae mycelia using Box-Behnken design

Fresh biomass of Aspergillus oryzae (A. oryzae) CGMCC5992 can effectively remove gallic acid from aqueous solution. To improve the removal rate of gallic acid, this study first identified the important factors affecting the removal rate of gallic acid with univariate analysis, and then used four-factor and three-level Box-Behnken design (BBD) with the removal rate of gallic acid as response value, to obtain the optimum conditions for the removal of gallic acid as follows: 6.95 h treatment time, pH 3.70, 7.07 g/L mycelium volume, and 120.64 mg/L initial concentration of gallic acid. Under such optimized condition, the removal rate of gallic acid approached 99.21 %. HPLC-MS analysis proved that the gallic acid in aqueous solution was completely removed by A. oryzae, rather than being metabolized into its derivatives. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the biomass morphology and surface structure of A. oryzae changed after the adsorption of gallic acid. Thus, the present study has provided an optimal condition for A. oryzae removal of gallic acid in water.

Removal of Alizarin Yellow dye from water using zinc doped WO3 catalyst

The degradation of Alizarin Yellow dye is studied here using the laser-induced photo-catalysis process in the presence of a zinc doped tungsten oxide catalyst. For optimization of the photo-catalytic process, the following parameters were investigated: dye concentration, laser irradiation time and incident laser energy. The calculated value of the reaction rate was found to be of a high value (k) = 0.197 (with estimated half-life of 6.5 min). This high value of k indicates the efficiency of this method in removing Alizarin Yellow dye from wastewater.

Biosorption of pentachlorophenol from aqueous solutions by a fungal biomass

This study focuses on the use of non-viable Aspergillus niger biomass, for the biosorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) from aqueous solutions. Various forms of the biomass-autoclaved and chemically conditioned, were tested for their potential in the removal of PCP from aqueous solutions. It was found that PCP removal was pH dependent; PCP removal decreased with the increase in pH for all type of biomass, except for cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) biomass. For CTAB biomass, a near complete removal of PCP was observed at all pHs. Therefore, CTAB biomass was used in further studies. PCP removal was rapid, with an equilibrium time of 2h. The rate of adsorption kinetics was well described by a pseudo-second order model. Isotherm models of the type one and two parameter models were found to fit the isotherm data. PCP biosorption was found to be exothermic in nature; the amount of PCP sorbed decreased with an increase in temperature. Desorption was carried out using deionized water, dilute HCl and dilute NaOH, and it was found that most of the PCP was irreversibly bound to the biomass. The addition of inorganic salts did not affect the removal of PCP from aqueous solutions. Among the surface functional groups present on the biomass, carboxyl, amide and hydroxyl groups seem to have played a role in PCP biosorption. It was concluded that CTAB treated biomass was an excellent adsorbent for the removal of PCP from aqueous solutions.

Laser-enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants from water using ZnO semiconductor catalyst

Wastewater contaminated with organic pollutants creates serious environmental problems. Laser induced photocatalysis has been investigated for removal of organic pollutant like phenol from water. The important mechanism for degradation of phenol by UV laser irradiation is redox reactions triggered by semiconductor catalyst in presence of water. In this study the potential of a ZnO semiconductor catalyst has been explored as an effective catalyst for the photodegradation of phenol using a Nd:YAG laser-emitting at 355 nm in UV-radiation in a batch reactor. The influences of different parameters such as catalyst concentration, UV-radiation intensity, and pH on the extent of photo degradation have been investigated. Overall degradation of phenol achieved was 70% after 60 minutes of laser irradiation of 100 ppm phenol solution in water. The reaction rate constant fit a first-order reaction model for phenol degradation and was estimated as 0.0088 min(-1). This study proved that laser induced photocatalytic removal of phenol is highly efficient as compared with the broadband spectral sources such as lamps being applied in majority of setups worldwide.

Degradation of pentachlorophenol by pure and mixed cultures in two different soils

GOAL, SCOPE AND BACKGROUND

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is the second highest volume pesticide used in the United States. It is a mutagenic compound whose exposure poses significant health effects, One of the most desirable, environmentally friendly treatment methods is bioremediation. For soil-based contamination, the effectiveness of bioremediation will also be affected by the presence of an active indigenous population, sorption of the contaminant onto the soil, and environmental parameters.

METHODS

Two pure strains and their mixed culture were used to evaluate PCP biodegradation in two different field soils, Columbia (CO) and New Mexico (NM). Biostimulation of the indigenous microbes was evaluated by adding nutrients. The efficiency of adding bacteria strains (bioaugmentation) for degrading PCP was determined with Arthrobacter sp., Flavobacterium sp. and a 50:50 mixture of the two bacteria strains.

RESULTS

In CO soil, only 24%, 12% and 25% of the initial PCP concentration were degraded by Flavobacterium sp., Arthrobacter sp. and mixed culture, respectively. Arthrobacter sp. was used in NM soil with two initial concentrations and achieved degradation efficiencies of 57% and 61% for 361 and 95 mg kg- concentrations, respectively. Discussion. Analysis via statistical methods showed that the bacteria had different efficiencies on PCP degradation in each soil. 2

CONCLUSIONS

All bacteria catalyzed a higher PCP degradation when present in NM soil. Second, Flavobacterium sp. degraded more PCP than Arthrobacter sp. in CO soil. The mixed culture achieved the highest degradation efficiency regardless of the initial concentration or soil origin.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES

The effect of the soil properties, such as the soil organic matter (SOM) on PCP biodegradation should be investigated. Future work can also investigate the effect of aging time on biodegradation.

Sorption of pentachlorophenol on pine bark

The minimization of pentachlorophenol (PCP) transport in the environment driven by industrial wastewater discharges can be accomplished by sorption in natural, available and low cost by-products like pine bark. Taking into account that PCP is a chemical which behaviour is highly dominated by the surrounding features, this work intended to evaluate the sorption kinetics and equilibrium parameters according to the pH and temperature as well as the pine bark particle size. The PCP uptake by pine bark showed to be faster in the initial phase followed by a slower process, being 24 h the suitably time to reach the sorption equilibrium in the range of pH studied. The neutral PCP species showed to have higher binding capacity to pine bark than the anionic PCP, which was reflected in a decrease in the distribution coefficient (Kd) of the linear sorption isotherm with the increase of solution pH from 2 to 7. On the other hand, between 10 degrees C and 35 degrees C, the temperature does not seem to play a significant role in the PCP sorption by pine bark, while the sorbent size is a key parameter to enhance the overall process.

Biosorption of phenol and chlorophenols by acclimated residential biomass under bioremediation conditions in a sandy aquifer

Phenol and chlorophenols are common environmental contaminants. The fate and transport of these chemicals must be sufficiently understood to predict detrimental environmental impacts and to develop technically and economically appropriate remedial action to minimise environmental degradation. In order to gain a better understanding of the many mechanisms influencing the fate of phenol and chlorophenols in a sandy aquifer, we conducted biosorption experiments with biomass collected from a simulated aquifer polluted by consecutive accidental spills of phenol, 2-monochlorophenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol under continuous bioremediation conditions following a closed-loop configuration during 180 days. A comparative study of the biosorption capacity of phenol and chlorophenols characterised by different physicochemical properties, at different pHs in the range of 6.0+/-0.1 to 9.0+/-0.1 showed the following: (i) the biosorption of phenol and chlorophenols on resident biomass was rapid (equilibrium reached in less than 2h); (ii) the experimental data followed the Freundlich isotherm; (iii) changes in pH from 6.0+/-0.1 to 9.0+/-0.1 resulted in a decrease in the equilibrium biosorption capacity (qeq); (iv) both Freundlich parameters (KF, n) should be used together as predictive parameters in mathematical models to simulate the fate of phenol and chlorophenols in the aquifer; (v) qeq of phenol and chlorophenols investigated in this study were satisfactorily correlated to their hydrophobicity (Kow) with a correlation factor 0.98. In addition, available data from other reported studies fell in the same correlation curve. The results of the present study should be introduced in mathematical models developed to predict the effect of biomass fate and transport of contaminants in aquifers during bioremediation conditions.

Removal of biocide pentachlorophenol in water system by the spent mushroom compost of Pleurotus pulmonarius

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) has been widely used as a wood preservative since 1980s. Although it has been banned worldwide, residues of PCP are still commonly found. The spent compost of oyster mushroom Pleurotus pulmonarius (SMC) which was a degraded paddy straw-based substrate, contained 25% chitin. Five percentage of the SMC could remove 89.0 +/- 0.4% of 100 mg PCPl(-1) within 2 days at room temperature predominantly by biodegradation. The maximum removal capacity was 15.5 +/- 1.0 mg g(-1) SMC. The sorption kinetics of PCP by SMC can be described by the Freundlich monolayer model with a theoretical sorption capacity similar to that found for chitin. A PCP-degradative bacterium was isolated from the SMC. Yet, biodegradation was predominantly contributed by the immobilized ligninolytic enzymes secreted by the mushroom to the SMC. Degradation of PCP involves dechlorination, methylation, carboxylation and ring cleavage as verified by GC-MSD and ion chromatography. Thus, the SMC has a potential for treating PCP-contaminated water.

Microbiological degradation of phenol using mixed liquors of Pseudomonas putida and activated sludge

This work investigated the biodegradation potential of phenol using mixed liquors of Pseudomonas putida (ATCC 31800) and activated sludge. Experiments were made as a function of solution pH (6-10), temperature (30-36 degrees C), nitrogen source (NH4)2SO4 (0.5-0.8 g/l), and carbon source glucose (0.5-0.8 g/l). Response surface methodology by the Box-Behnken model was used to examine the role of four process factors on phenol degradation. It was shown that a second-order polynomial regression model could properly interpret the experimental data with an R2-value of 0.9997 and an F-value of 3605.45, based on which the maximum degradation of phenol was estimated up to 80.1% within the range examined. Interactions between process parameters and each significance effect on phenol degradation were also discussed.

A comparative adsorption/biosorption study of mono-chlorinated phenols onto various sorbents

The potential use of dried activated sludge and fly ash as a substitute for granular activated carbon for removing mono-chlorinated phenols (o-chlorophenol and p-chlorophenol) was examined. The pollutant binding capacity of the adsorbent/biosorbent was shown to be a function of substituted group, initial pH and initial mono-chlorinated phenol concentration. The working sorption pH value was determined as 1.0 and the equilibrium uptake increased with increasing initial mono-chlorinated phenol concentration up to 500 mg dm(-3) for all the mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent systems. The suitability of the Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson adsorption models to the equilibrium data were investigated for each mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent system. The results showed that the equilibrium data for all the mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent systems fitted the Redlich-Peterson model best within the concentration range studied.

Adsorption capacity as a key parameter for enzyme induction and pentachlorophenol degradation in Mycobacterium chlorophenolicum PCP-1

Adsorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on induced cells of Mycobacterium chlorophenolicum PCP-1 and its influence on enzyme induction and PCP degradation of this strain were studied. Compared to non-induced cells, induced degrading cells had a lower adsorption capacity (q(ads)), particularly at prolonged induction and low PCP concentration. Unlike the effects of pH and biomass concentration previously reported for non-induced cells, the variation of q(ads) of induced cells was associated with changes of both the capacity and intensity constants of the Freundlich equation which was used to describe PCP adsorption on M. chlorophenolicum PCP-1. This indicated changes of cell surface properties during enzyme induction and PCP degradation. The latter was shown in turn to be affected by several parameters such as PCP concentration, pH value and induction time. Interestingly, irrespective of the pH and PCP concentration, the specific PCP degradation rate (q(t)(PCP)) at a given induction time was found to be solely a function of q(ads), revealing that adsorption capacity is an inherent key parameter for enzyme induction and PCP degradation. Based on this knowledge, a kinetic model was developed for q(t)(PCP) which used only q(ads) and induction time as variables. The model considered inhibition of PCP on both enzyme induction and enzyme activity and described the experimental data at different PCP concentrations and pH values well. q(ads) also turned out to be a useful criterion for choosing optimum induction concentration of PCP. Irrespective of pH and biomass concentration, an initial adsorption capacity of 2-3 micromol PCP/g cells was found to be optimum for enzyme induction in M. chlorophenolicum PCP-1.

Degradation of chlorobenzenes at nanomolar concentrations by Burkholderia sp. strain PS14 in liquid cultures and in soil

The utilization of 1,2,4,5-tetrachloro-, 1,2,4-trichloro-, the three isomeric dichlorobenzenes and fructose as the sole carbon and energy sources at nanomolar concentrations was studied in batch experiments with Burkholderia sp. strain PS14. In liquid culture, all chlorobenzenes were metabolized within 1 h from their initial concentration of 500 nM to below their detection limits of 0.5 nM for 1,2,4,5-tetrachloro- and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and 7.5 nM for the three dichlorobenzene isomers, with 63% mineralization of the tetra- and trichloroisomers. Fructose at the same initial concentration was, in contrast, metabolized over a 4-h incubation period down to a residual concentration of approximately 125 nM with 38% mineralization during this time. In soil microcosms, Burkholderia sp. strain PS14 metabolized tetrachlorobenzene present at 64.8 ppb and trichlorobenzene present at 54.4 ppb over a 72-h incubation period to below the detection limits of 0.108 and 0.09 ppb, respectively, with approximately 80% mineralization. A high sorptive capacity of Burkholderia sp. strain PS14 for 1,2,4, 5-tetrachlorobenzene was found at very low cell density. The results demonstrate that Burkholderia sp. strain PS14 exhibits a very high affinity for chlorobenzenes at nanomolar concentrations.

Lux-biosensor assessment of pH effects on microbial sorption and toxicity of chlorophenols

Lux-marked bacterial biosensors and a commercial toxicity testing bacterial strain (Microtox) were exposed to 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) and the light output response measured. Increasing DCP concentrations caused a decrease in light output in all three biosensors with an order of sensitivity (in terms of luminescence decrease over the DCP concentration range) of Pseudomonas fluorescens < Escherichia coli < Microtox. Adsorption of DCP to E. coli was measured using uniformly ring labelled [14C]DCP and found to be very rapid. The effect of pH on toxicity and adsorption was also investigated. Low pH values increased the amount of DCP adsorbed to the cell and increased the toxicity of DCP.