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The identification and performance assessment of dominant bacterial species during linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS)-biodegradation in a bioelectrochemical system

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Abstract

The anionic surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) is a major chemical constituent of detergent formulation. Regarding the recalcitrant nature of sulfonoaromatic compounds, discharging these substances into wastewater collection systems is a real environmental issue. A study on LAS biodegradation based on bioelectrochemical treatment and in the form of developing a single-chamber microbial fuel cell with air cathode is reported in the present work. Pretreatment study showed LAS concentration of 60 ppm resulted in the highest anaerobic LAS removal of 57%; so, this concentration was chosen to run the MFC. After the sustained anodic biofilm was formed, LAS degradation rate during 4 days in MFC was roughly 76% higher than that in the serum bottle, which indicated the role of the bioelectrochemical process in improving anaerobic LAS removal. Additionally, through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the dominant bacterial species in the biofilm was identified as Pseudomonas zhaodongensis NEAU-ST5-21(T) with about 98.9% phylogenetic similarity and then a pathway was proposed for LAS anaerobic biodegradation. The MFC characteristics were assessed by pH monitoring as well as scanning electron microscopy and current density evolution.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

    Anis Askari & Farzaneh Vahabzadeh

  2. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Mahdi Mardanpour

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  1. Anis Askari
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  2. Farzaneh Vahabzadeh
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  3. Mohammad Mahdi Mardanpour
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The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors. The roles of all authors are listed, using the relevant above categories as follow (it should be noted that authors have contributed in multiple roles): AA: formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft; FV: supervision, conceptualization, and writing—review and editing; MMM: supervision, conceptualization, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Farzaneh Vahabzadeh.

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Askari, A., Vahabzadeh, F. & Mardanpour, M.M. The identification and performance assessment of dominant bacterial species during linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS)-biodegradation in a bioelectrochemical system. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 44, 2579–2590 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-021-02629-0

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