Co-biodegradation studies of naphthalene and phenanthrene using bacterial consortium

Degradation studies of phenanthrene and naphthalene as a mixture was carried out using a developed bacterial consortium. The isolates used in consortium were identified as Chryseobacterium sp., Sphingobacterium sp., Stenotrophomonas sp., Agromyces sp. and Pseudomonas sp. Limited work is done on genus Agromyces in degradation studies of PAHs. Catechol production was detected using Arnow's assay suggested that the pathway used for degradation is the meta-cleavage pathway. Results showed that Tween 80, as a surfactant, had maximum effect on the growth of isolates during PAH degradation. This suggests that use of Tween 80 as a surfactant enhanced the uptake of PAH by bacterial isolates during degradation. The study further revealed that, bacterial consortium was successfully utilized in the treatment of water contaminated with PAH in a laboratory-scale biofilm bioreactor. The bacterial consortium was able to degrade 99.9% of naphthalene and 92.9% of phenanthrene as a mixture at a high concentration of 2000 mg/L within 6 days. Further scaling up of the biofilm bioreactor can prove beneficial in large scale treatment of PAH contaminated water. This study showed promising results and these bacterial strains can be used as potential tools for bioremediation of PAH in contaminated sites.