Biodegradation 2012-02-01

Kinetics of biodegradation of diethylketone by Arthrobacter viscosus.

Filomena Costa, Cristina Quintelas, Teresa Tavares

Index: Biodegradation 23(1) , 81-92, (2012)

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Abstract

The performance of an Arthrobacter viscosus culture to remove diethylketone from aqueous solutions was evaluated. The effect of initial concentration of diethylketone on the growth of the bacteria was evaluated for the range of concentration between 0 and 4.8 g/l, aiming to evaluate a possible toxicological effect. The maximum specific growth rate achieved is 0.221 h(-1) at 1.6 g/l of initial diethylketone concentration, suggesting that for higher concentrations an inhibitory effect on the growth occurs. The removal percentages obtained were approximately 88%, for all the initial concentrations tested. The kinetic parameters were estimated using four growth kinetic models for biodegradation of organic compounds available in the literature. The experimental data found is well fitted by the Haldane model (R (2) = 1) as compared to Monod model (R (2) = 0.99), Powell (R (2) = 0.82) and Loung model (R (2) = 0.95). The biodegradation of diethylketone using concentrated biomass was studied for an initial diethylketone concentration ranging from 0.8-3.9 g/l in a batch with recirculation mode of operation. The biodegradation rate found followed the pseudo-second order kinetics and the resulting kinetic parameters are reported. The removal percentages obtained were approximately 100%, for all the initial concentrations tested, suggesting that the increment on the biomass concentration allows better results in terms of removal of diethylketone. This study showed that these bacteria are very effective for the removal of diethylketone from aqueous solutions.