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Microbial reduction of dinitrotoluene sulfonates in TNT red water–contaminated soil

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Large quantities of TNT red water which contained mainly dinitrotoluene sulfonates (DNTS) were produced during the production of TNT, threatening the surrounding environments. In china, about 1.5 × 105 m3 soil was contaminated by TNT red water. So, it is extremely important to remediate the DNTS-contaminated sites.

Materials and methods

Batch biodegradation tests were conducted to investigate the influence of environmental factors (microorganism dosage, initial DNTS concentration, water/soil ratio, and temperature) on the microbial reduction of DNTS in soil. The biodegradation intermediate metabolites of 2,4-dinitrotoluene-3-sulfonate (2,4-DNT-3-SO3−) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene-5-sulfonate (2,4-DNT-5-SO3−) during the remediation process were determined. Three kinetic models were used to study the biodegradation kinetics of DNTS in soil. Finally, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology was applied to identify the microbial communities in soil samples during the bioremediation process.

Results and discussion

Batch experiments showed that at initial concentration of 500 mg kg−1, 2,4-DNT-3-SO3− and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3− removal efficiencies reached 100% after 25 and 13 days under the following conditions: water/soil ratio of 2:5, microorganism dosage (w/w) of 1%, and temperature of 35 °C. The microbial consortium metabolized 2,4-DNT-3-SO3− and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3− via reductive pathways. The biodegradation processes fitted well with zero-order reaction kinetics at different initial DNTS concentrations. HTS results showed that the bacterial communities were greatly influenced by the DNTS addition. The dominant genus in 2,4-DNT-3-SO3−-contaminated soil were Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Simiduia, Salegentibacter, and Methylohalomonas while that in 2,4-DNT-3-SO3−-contaminated soil were Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Simiduia, Methylohalomonas, Salegentibacter, Pontibacter, and Actinotalea.

Conclusions

Microbial consortium showed great DNTS-degrading ability. Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Simiduia played a major role in biodegradation of 2,4-DNT-3-SO3− and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3− in soil. The microbial consortium tolerated high levels of DNTS found in the soil and degraded the contaminants into more biodegradable forms. The biotreatment technology is effective and has a potential to be use in remediation of TNT red water–contaminated sites.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Scientific Research Fund Project of Nanjing Institute of Technology (NO. YKJ2019101), National Basic Product Innovation Research Project (15), Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project (NO. Z151100000915065), and University Natural Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province (18KJB61006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing, 211167, China

    Wenjie Xu, Jin Xu & Minghan Luo

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering, The Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Wenjie Xu, Quanlin Zhao & Zhengfang Ye

Authors
  1. Wenjie Xu
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  2. Quanlin Zhao
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  3. Zhengfang Ye
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  4. Jin Xu
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  5. Minghan Luo
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Wenjie Xu and Quanlin Zhao. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wenjie Xu, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Jin Xu and Minghan Luo provided a great help for the revision of the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhengfang Ye.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Responsible editor: Zhaohui Wang

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Fig S1

Liquid chromatograms and mass spectra of DNTS before and after biodegradation, as follows: a liquid chromatograms of 2,4-DNT-3-SO3−, b liquid chromatograms of 2,4-DNT-5-SO3−, c mass spectra of 2, 4-DNT-3-SO3−, and d mass spectra of 2,4-DNT-5-SO3 (PNG 8657 kb)

High-resolution image (TIF 2013 kb)

Fig S2

Proposed biodegradation pathway of 2,4-DNT-3-SO3− (a) and 2,4-DNT-5-SO3− (b) (PNG 2605 kb)

High-resolution image (TIF 713 kb)

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Xu, W., Zhao, Q., Ye, Z. et al. Microbial reduction of dinitrotoluene sulfonates in TNT red water–contaminated soil. J Soils Sediments 21, 914–924 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02795-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02795-w

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