Reliable and Sophisticated Techniques to Evaluate LDPE Degraded Compounds by Streptomyces werraensis SDJM

Abstract

The modern world in the present era made life miserable due to extensive usage of plastic. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is widely consumed in every part of the world starting from baby products to garbage bags. Humans and animals are affected due to the usage and disposal of LDPE in the environment. To safeguard the environment from deleterious effects, biodegradation of LDPE was studied by isolating a potent Streptomyces werraensis SDJM strain from garbage soil. The degradation assessment was performed to identify the LDPE degraded compounds such as octane, decane, tetracosane, hexacosane, dotriacontene, tetratiacontene, tridecone, tetracontane, and pentacosane, using a sophisticated technique - liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LCMS). The end product of LDPE biodegradation, carbon dioxide was measured by the GCMS-SPME technique. Field trials in garbage soil for a period of three months reveal 71.26% weight loss compared to laboratory test results where the weight loss was 60.05%. The morphological changes and structural changes of the polymer in fields were assessed by SEM analysis and FTIR analysis after one month of incubation. The test results in field trials were promising and convincing to overcome the LDPE pollution in presence of S.werraensis SDJM strain.

Keywords

• ldpe, lcms technique, gcms-spme technique, streptomyces werraensis, sdjm strain