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The evaluation of Bacillus-secreted polyglutamic acid as anti-scaling treatment for circulating cooling water

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Abstract

Polyaspartic acid is considered a green agent for the treatment of circulating cooling water. However, its chemosynthetic process is not green, as it requires significant amounts of energy and causes water pollution. In this work, we identified an analog of polyaspartic acid, namely polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA), which could be directly produced by Bacillus spp., and we explored its performance and scale inhibition mechanism as a scale inhibitor. We found that γ-PGA secreted by B. megaterium with a molecular weight of ~ 70 kDa showed poor scale inhibition, while the γ-PGA secreted by B. licheniformis with a molecular weight of ~ 15 kDa had a 26.87% higher efficiency compared to commercially available polyaspartic acid. The scale inhibition mechanism was explored using the γ-PGA material secreted by B. licheniformis. Fourier transform spectrometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that the scale inhibition performance of γ-PGA was due to the combination of its functional groups and Ca2+, which affected the growth process of CaCO3 and inhibited the formation of CaCO3. This study provided deeper insight into scale inhibition performance related to the scale inhibition mechanism.

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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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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jingyao Qu, Zhifeng Li, and Jing Zhu from the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology of Shandong University for help and guidance in LC-MS. The authors thank Dr. Pamela Holt for proofreading the manuscript. We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U20A20146).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Yutong Li, Zhen Yan, Jun Liu, Chao Song, Fanping Zhu & Shuguang Wang

  2. Sino-French Research Institute for Ecology and Environment (ISFREE), School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Shuguang Wang

Authors
  1. Yutong Li
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  2. Zhen Yan
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  3. Jun Liu
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  4. Chao Song
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  5. Fanping Zhu
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  6. Shuguang Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yutong Li. Zhen Yan and Fanping Zhu aided in analyzing the results and guidance. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yutong Li. Zhen Yan, Chao Song, Jun Liu, and Shuguang Wang contributed to the writing and development of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shuguang Wang.

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Highlights

• Two Bacillus spp. are identified for producing γ-PGA independent of glutamate.

• The biosynthetic γ-PGA performs better than polyaspartic acid for scale inhibition.

• The molecular weight of the polymer is the key factor affecting scale inhibition performance.

• The chelation of functional groups and the lattice distortion ability of γ-PGA enable the scale inhibition.

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Li, Y., Yan, Z., Liu, J. et al. The evaluation of Bacillus-secreted polyglutamic acid as anti-scaling treatment for circulating cooling water. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 82762–82771 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21299-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21299-3

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