silicon and butyl-acetate

A stable microbial population, consisting of seven bacterial strains and three yeast strains, was selected in batch cultures on a mixture of ortho and meta-xylene and butyl acetate as the sole source of carbon and energy. This population can completely degrade up to 10 g/L of a mixture of these xenobiotics (70% xylene and 30% butyl acetate wt/wt) in a two-phase aqueous-silicone oil system (70%/30% vol/vol) within 96 h, while for the usual one-phase system very low growth degradation rates were observed. Further organic solvents were tested and finally, silicon oil was selected as the best organic phase for such a two-phase system. With periodical pH adjustments to 6.0 in fed-batch mode, the culture showed a global degradation rate of 63 mg L-1 h-1.

Topics: Acetates; Bacteria; Biodegradation, Environmental; Environmental Pollutants; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Kinetics; Silicon; Water; Xylenes; Yeasts