Ex-situ bioremediation of Brazilian soil contaminated with plasticizers process wastes

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira,I. D.
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Morita,D. M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322012000100009
• topic: Bioremediation; Phthalates; Adipates

The aim of this research was to evaluate the bioremediation of a soil contaminated with wastes from a plasticizers industry, located in São Paulo, Brazil. A 100-kg soil sample containing alcohols, adipates and phthalates was treated in an aerobic slurry-phase reactor using indigenous and acclimated microorganisms from the sludge of a wastewater treatment plant of the plasticizers industry (11gVSS kg-1 dry soil), during 120 days. The soil pH and temperature were not corrected during bioremediation; soil humidity was corrected weekly to maintain 40%. The biodegradation of the pollutants followed first-order kinetics; the removal efficiencies were above 61% and, among the analyzed plasticizers, adipate was removed to below the detection limit. Biological molecular analysis during bioremediation revealed a significant change in the dominant populations initially present in the reactor.