Abstract
A microbial consortium from a mixture of garden soil and an enrichment of a coal-tar contaminated sediment mineralized naphthalene and anthracene when oxygen, nitrate, Fe(III) (soluble and insoluble) or sulphate were provided as terminal electron acceptors (TEAs). Rates of polyaromatic hydrocarbon disappearance and mineralization were similar in the presence of oxygen and nitrate, and slower with the other TEAs. A maximum mineralization of 37.5% naphthalene and 8.% anthracene occurred in 30 and 160 days respectively when oxygen was provided as the TEA. On the other hand, only 9.5% naphthalene and 3.2% anthracene were mineralized in 42 and 160 days respectively with FeOOH. Mineralization occurred only when a TEA was provided and ceased when the naphthalene concentration decreased to non-detectable levels (less than 0.008 μmoles/L), as measured by fluorescence spectroscopy. CH4 was not detected in the headspace of any microcosm. These results showed that mineralization of polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene and anthracene can be linked to wide range of TEAs demonstrating that intrinsic polyaromatic hydrocarbon bioremediation is possible if any of these TEAs were available.
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Ramsay, J.A., Li, H., Brown, R. et al. Naphthalene and Anthracene Mineralization Linked to Oxygen, Nitrate, Fe(III) and Sulphate Reduction in a Mixed Microbial Population. Biodegradation 14, 321–329 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025620710581
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025620710581