In this study, the potential of selected psychrotolerant yeast strains for phenol biodegradation was studied. From 39 strains isolated from soil and water samples from Rucianka peat bog, three psychrotolerant yeast strains, A011, B021, and L012, showed the ability to degrade phenol. The result shows that all three yeast strains could degrade phenol at 500 and 750 mg l-1 concentration, whereas s...

Many industrial activities utilise formaldehyde as a key chemical in organic synthesis including: synthesis of special chemicals such as pentaerythritol and ethylene glycol, synthetic resins, paper products, medicinal products and drugs and others, too numerous to mention. Therefore, effluents arising from these applications may contain significant amounts of formaldehyde. In a biodegradation e...

Organic pollutants comprise a potential group of chemicals which can be dreadfully hazardous to human health. As they persist in the environment, they are capable of long range transportation, bioaccumulation in human and animal tissue and biomagnifications in food chain. Phenolic compounds are hazardous pollutants that are toxic at relatively low concentration. The use of microbial catalysts i...

The mycelium (or conidia) of Aspergillus awamori NRRL 3112 was investigated for its ability to degrade phenol, catechol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,6-dimethoxyphenol in high concentrations. The biodegradation studies were performed in a liquid medium with the phenolic compounds a A b o c k ©

The biodegradation of three synthetic 14C-labeled polymers, poly(methyl methacrylate), phenol formaldehyde, and polystyrene, was studied with 17 species of fungi in axenic cultures, five groups of soil invertebrates, and a variety of mixed microbial communities including sludges, soils, manures, garbages, and decaying plastics. Extremely low decomposition rates were found. The addition of cellu...

Biodegradation of distillery wastewater is dependent on initial pH. In this present research, the effect of initial pH from 5.0 to 6.5 on biodegradation of distillery wastewater using anaerobic mixed consortia by batch process was investigated. The parameters like chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, oxidation reduction potential (ORP), final pH, total phenol content, total protein ...

We developed 12 models of kinetics to describe the metabolism of organic substrates that are not supporting bacterial growth. These models can be used to describe the biodegradation of organic compounds that are not supporting growth when the responsible populations are growing logistically, logarithmically, or linearly or are not increasing in numbers. Nonlinear regression analysis was used to...

A phenol-degrading bacterium strain PA was successfully isolated from the effluent of petrochemical wastewater. Based on its morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics, the strain PA was characterized as a Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, nonmotile and short rod-shaped bacterium that utilizes phenol as a sole carbon and energy source. 16S rDNA sequence analysis revealed that t...

The efficiencies of NADPH-dependent phenol hydroxylase (EC 1.14.13.7) and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase (EC.1.13.11.1) in biodegradation of phenol in the cytosolic fraction isolated from yeast Candida tropicalis were investigated. Enzymatic activities of both NADPH-dependent phenol hydroxylase and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase were detected in the cytosolic fraction of C. tropicalis grown on medium conta...

Phenol and phenolic compounds are environmental pollutants present in industrial wastewaters such as coal tar, oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Phenol removal from industrial effluents is extremely important for the protection of environment. Usually, phenol degradation is carried out by physicochemical methods that are costly and produce hazardous metabolites. Recently, phenol biodegra...