Dual augmentation for aerobic bioremediation of MTBE and TCE pollution in heavy metal-contaminated soil

• Autor(a) principal: Fernandes, Virgínia C.
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Albergaria, José Tomás, Oliva-Teles, Maria Teresa, Delerue-Matos, Cristina, Marco, P. De
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/2973
• topic: Bioremediation; Soil; Heavy metal; TCE; MTBE; Cadmium; Lead; Mercury

In this work we isolated from soil and characterized several bacterial strains capable of either resisting high concentrations of heavy metals (Cd2+ or Hg2+ or Pb2+) or degrading the common soil and groundwater pollutants MTBE (methyl-tertbutyl ether) or TCE (trichloroethylene). We then used soil microcosms exposed to MTBE (50 mg/l) or TCE (50 mg/l) in the presence of one heavy metal (Cd 10 ppm or Hg 5 ppm or Pb 50 or 100 ppm) and two bacterial isolates at a time, a degrader plus a metalresistant strain. Some of these two-membered consortia showed degradation efficiencies well higher (49–182% higher) than those expected under the conditions employed, demonstrating the occurrence of a synergetic relationship between the strains used. Our results show the efficacy of the dual augmentation strategy for MTBE and TCE bioremediation in the presence of heavy metals.