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Evaluating the degradation of the herbicides picloram and 2,4-D in a compartmentalized reactive biobarrier with internal liquid recirculation

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Abstract

Tordon is a widely used herbicide formulation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 4-amino-3,5,6-trichloropicolinic acid (picloram), and it is considered a toxic herbicide. The purposes of this work were to assess the feasibility of a microbial consortium inoculated in a lab-scale compartmentalized biobarrier, to remove these herbicides, and isolate, identify, and evaluate their predominant microbial constituents. Volumetric loading rates of herbicides ranging from 31.2 to 143.9 g m−3 day−1, for 2,4-D, and 12.8 to 59.3 g m−3 day−1 for picloram were probed; however, the top operational limit of the biobarrier, detected by a decay in the removal efficiency, was not reached. At the highest loading rates probed, high average removal efficiencies of 2,4-D, 99.56 ± 0.44; picloram, 94.58 ± 2.62; and chemical oxygen demand (COD), 89.42 ± 3.68, were obtained. It was found that the lab-scale biofilm reactor efficiently removed both herbicides at dilution rates ranging from 0.92 to 4.23 day−1, corresponding to hydraulic retention times from 1.087 to 0.236 days. On the other hand, few microbial strains able to degrade picloram are reported in the literature. In this work, three of the nine bacterial strains isolated cometabolically degrade picloram. They were identified as Hydrocarboniphaga sp., Tsukamurella sp., and Cupriavidus sp.

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Acknowledgments

Ramos-Monroy O. was a holder of a research grant from Conacyt. Ruiz-Ordaz N., Juárez-Ramírez C., and Galíndez-Mayer J. are holders of grants from COFAA-IPN, SIP-IPN, and SNI-Conacyt. The authors express their thanks to the staff of the Spectroscopy Central, ENCB IPN, for HPLC analysis.

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  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Bioquímica, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, IPN, Carpio y Plan de Ayala, Colonia Santo Tomás s/n, CP 11340, México, D.F., México

    Yolanda Ordaz-Guillén, Cutberto Juvencio Galíndez-Mayer, Nora Ruiz-Ordaz, Cleotilde Juárez-Ramírez, Fortunata Santoyo-Tepole & Oswaldo Ramos-Monroy

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  1. Yolanda Ordaz-Guillén
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  2. Cutberto Juvencio Galíndez-Mayer
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Correspondence to Cutberto Juvencio Galíndez-Mayer.

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Ordaz-Guillén, Y., Galíndez-Mayer, C.J., Ruiz-Ordaz, N. et al. Evaluating the degradation of the herbicides picloram and 2,4-D in a compartmentalized reactive biobarrier with internal liquid recirculation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 8765–8773 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2809-8

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