Bioremediation of Long-chained Aliphatic Amines a Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Division of the University of Hawai'i in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biosystems Engineering

The biodegradability ofN, N Octadecyldimethylamine, a long-chained aliphatic amine, was studied in a biotreatability system. The study serves as a precursor to the application ofcompost biofiltration to treat odorous waste gases containing long-chained alkyl amines (e.g., emitted by spray-painting operations). The biodegradability ofthe amine was determined by evaluating contaminant removal and microbial activity within biologically active and sterile treatments. The loss of contaminant and microbial activity were replicated in two four-week long experiments. The bioreactors were spiked with 200 mg ofN, N Octadecyldimethylamine / g of dry compost. On a weekly basis, the contaminant was extracted from a sample of the media and quantified using gas chromatography flame ionization detection (GC-FID). Microbial activity was monitored by microbial enumeration and respirometry. In addition, the differences in microbial structure between the two treatments (i.e., sterile and non-sterile) were determined through Polymerase Chain Reaction Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). The average contaminant degradation in non-sterile bioreactors was 90% ± 4% over four weeks, while degradation within the initially sterile bioreactors was 31 % ± 17%. The microbial enumeration results demonstrated that the non-sterile treatments were one order ofmagnitude greater (10 colony forming units per gram dry compost (CFU/g)) than the initially sterile treatments (10 CFU / g). Furthermore, respiration rates (g C02 evolved / hr and g O2consumed / hr) of non-sterile treatments were significantly greater than that of the sterile treatments.