Title: | Effect of surfactants at natural and acidic pH on microbial activity and biodegradation of mixture of benzene and o-xylene |
Author(s): | Khoramfar S; Jones KD; Ghobadi J; Taheri P; |
Address: | "Geosyntec Consultants Inc., Houston, TX, 77042, USA. Department of Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, TX, 78363, USA. Electronic address: kim.jones@tamuk.edu. Sterlitech Inc., Kent, WA, 98032, USA. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA" |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127471 |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1298 (Electronic) 0045-6535 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "The aim of this work was to explore the effect of lowering pH and application of surfactants (Brij 35, Tween 20 and Saponin) in increasing bioavailability and biodegradability of benzene and o-xylene (BX) as two hydrophobic VOCs in a liquid mixture. All experiments were conducted at neutral and acidic pH to evaluate the effect of population change from bacteria to fungi on the BX biodegradation. The experiments demonstrated that acclimating wastewater inoculum at pH 4 increased the fungal to bacterial ratio. An increase of 11% for benzene and 22% for o-xylene was observed at pH 4 unamended-culture as compared to pH 7. Brij 35 was chosen as the optimum surfactant which was favorable for enhancing the bioavailability of BX at pH 4. Fitting the experimental data to pseudo first-order biodegradation kinetics model showed the BX were biodegraded faster in the presence of optimum surfactant at pH 7 than pH 4" |
Keywords: | "Acids/metabolism Bacteria/metabolism Benzene/*metabolism Benzene Derivatives/metabolism Biodegradation, Environmental Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Kinetics Polysorbates Surface-Active Agents/chemistry Wastewater Xylenes/*metabolism Acidic pH Biological trea;" |
Notes: | "MedlineKhoramfar, Shooka Jones, Kim D Ghobadi, Jalil Taheri, Parisa eng England 2020/07/19 Chemosphere. 2020 Dec; 260:127471. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127471. Epub 2020 Jul 2" |