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The influence of cell immobilization by biofilm forming on the biodegradation capabilities of bacterial consortia

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Abstract

Recent biodegradation researches are focused on improving the deterioration efficiency and maintaining the stability of microbial activity during the process. Immobilizing bacterial cells by using the adhesive method is a simple way to achieve both objectives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the immobilization of bacterial cells by the biofilm forming method influences the biodegradation efficiency of two different bacterial consortia—low diesel oil degraders (base deterioration efficiency < 40%) and high phenol degraders (base deterioration efficiency > 90%). The degradation tests were carried out on four different carriers (expanded clay pellets, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride rings and paperboard). The obtained results show that biofilms may considerably increase the efficiency of low degraders. The best diesel oil deterioration (80%) was achieved when paperboard was used as a carrier. However, the immobilization of high degraders did not significantly influence their base biodegradation potential. A 6% increase was noted only for the expanded clay pellets.

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Acknowledgments

The microbial soil isolates from Kryg used throughout this study were kindly donated by our colleague Ł. Chrzanowski. We also wish to thank him for his support and comments concerning the lab experiments. We are grateful to dr K. Bielicka-Daszkiewicz and PhD student M. Pietrzyńska for the GC analysis of the diesel oil and phenol residues. This study was funded by Grants No. 32/0897/2009 Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and No. NN305 035434 Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, years 2008–2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical Technology and Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, Pl. M. Skłodowskiej-Curie 2, 60-965, Poznan, Poland

    Łukasz Ławniczak, Ewa Kaczorek & Andrzej Olszanowski

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  1. Łukasz Ławniczak
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  2. Ewa Kaczorek
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  3. Andrzej Olszanowski
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Correspondence to Łukasz Ławniczak.

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Ławniczak, Ł., Kaczorek, E. & Olszanowski, A. The influence of cell immobilization by biofilm forming on the biodegradation capabilities of bacterial consortia. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 27, 1183–1188 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-010-0566-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-010-0566-5

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