Authors: Giovanni Cagnetta Gianluca Intini Lorenzo Liberti Vladimir V Boldyrev Oleg I Lomovskiy
Publish Date: 2014/10/26
Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: 240-248
Abstract
The Biomec process a twostage treatment based on a short mechanochemical MC pretreatment and then followed by an aerobic biological degradation was developed and tested for detoxifying marine sediments that were largely contaminated by polychlorobiphenyls PCBsClean marine sediment spiked with PCBs Aroclor 1260 and alternatively with decachlorobiphenyl in slurry conditions was ultramilled for 1 min in a nutational high energy ball mill then was treated aerobically in a bioreactor with a purposely selected commercial bacterium Burkholderia xenovoransWith ∼66 overall PCB biodegradation achieved in less than 3 months laboratory experiments confirmed the remarkable effectiveness of Biomec process when compared to direct bioremediation The investigation showed in particular that the MC pretreatment decreased the chlorination degree of highchlorinated PCB congeners and consequently their biorecalcitrance through the substitution of some chlorine atoms with hydroxyl groups This reaction eases the aerobic degradation of the hydroxylsubstituted PCBs by B xenovorans allowing bacteria to skip the cell stressing step of aromatic ring bihydroxylation along the biodegradation pathway
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