Acute effect of benzo[a]anthracene on the biodegradation of peptone under aerobic conditions.

Serden Başak, Emine Ubay Cokgör, Güçlü Insel, Derin Orhon

Environmental science and pollution research international 2012 Sep

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This study investigated the acute effect of benzo[a]anthracene, a significant compound among polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, on the biodegradation of a synthetic organic substrate-a peptone/meat extract mixture-under aerobic conditions. A laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor was sustained at steady state at a sludge age of 10 days with substrate feeding. Inhibition tests involved running a series of batch reactors initially seeded with the biomass obtained from the parent reactor. After the biomass seeding, the reactors were started with the peptone mixture and a range of initial benzo[a]anthracene concentrations between 0.5 and 88 mg/L. Experimental profiles of oxygen uptake rates and polyhydroxyalkanoates were evaluated by calibration of a selected model. Lower doses of benzo[a]anthracene had no effect on process kinetics. The noticeable acute impact was only observed with the addition of 88 mg/L of benzo[a]anthracene, but it was limited with the storage mechanism: the amount of organic substrate diverted to polyhydroxyalkanoates was significantly reduced with a corresponding decrease in the maximum storage rate, k (STO), from 2.7 down to 0.6 day(-1). Similarly, the maximum growth rate from internally stored polyhydroxyalkanoates was lowered from 2.3 to 1.0 day(-1). Among the mechanisms for direct substrate utilization, only the hydrolysis rate was slightly reduced, but otherwise, the overall COD removal efficiency was not affected.

Citation

Serden Başak, Emine Ubay Cokgör, Güçlü Insel, Derin Orhon. Acute effect of benzo[a]anthracene on the biodegradation of peptone under aerobic conditions. Environmental science and pollution research international. 2012 Sep;19(8):3412-20