Effect of glutaraldehyde treatment on stability of permeabilized Ochrobactrum anthropi SY509 in nitrate removal

For practical application, the stability of permeabilized Ochrobactrum anthropi SY509 needs to be increased, as its half-life of enzymatic denitrification is only 90 days. As the cells become viable after permeabilization treatment, this can cause decreased activity in a long-term operation and induce breakage of the immobilization matrix. However, the organic solvent concentration causing zero cell viability was 50%, which is too high for industrial application. Thus, wholecell immobilization using glutaraldehyde was performed, and 0.1% (v/v) glutaraldehyde was determined as the optimum concentration to maintain activity and increase the half-life. It was also found that 0.1% (v/v) glutaraldehyde reacted with 41.9% of the total amine residues on the surface of the cells during the treatment. As a result, the half-life of the permeabilized cells was increased from 90 to 210 days by glutaraldehyde treatment after permeabilization, and no cell viability was detected.