Anaerobic Biodegradation of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons by a Sulfate Reducing Bacteria C1Fd Strain

Abstract

Aromatic hydrocarbons contamination is widely prevalent in various parts of the world due to anthropogenic activities and leads to anaerobic conditions. As a result, most of its biodegradation is due to anaerobic microorganisms, and most specifically by anaerobic bacteria capable of using sulfates as final electron acceptor to degrade these compounds. Although there are reports on consortia of microorganisms that are involved in the anaerobic biodegradation of monoaromatic hydrocarbons (MAH) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), only few reports are available using pure cultures. This paper describes an anaerobic, gram positive and spore forming bacterial strain (C1Fd), which was isolated and purified from aromatic compounds degrading consortium developed using bovine rumen fluid as inoculum. C1Fd was able to use MAH and PAH under anaerobic conditions and removed up 9.4 mM of MAH and 9.2 mM of PAH in less than 72 h. The strain was identified as Bacillus sp. and is phylogenetically related to the hydrocarbon degrading bacteria, Desulfotomaculum sp., isolated from a wastewater treatment plant.

Keywords

• benzene
• naphthalene
• phenanthrene
• toluene