Biodegradation of Organopollutants by a White Rot Fungus in Bench Scale Reactors. Volume 1 and Volume 2

摘要

The wood rotting basidiomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium is able to degrade a wide variety of environmentally persistent organic pollutants to carbon dioxide. Results demonstrated that this fungus can be used to degrade organic pollutants in fixed film bioreactors in which the fungus is immobilized on a polypropylene netting and in fluidized bed bioreactors. The role of lignin peroxidases in organic pollutant degradation was also studied. Results demonstrated that lignin peroxidases are sufficiently stable to be of use in water bioremediation systems which use this fungus. Increasing levels of lignin peroxidases may be an effective strategy for increasing the initial disappearance of some organic pollutants. However, increased levels of lignin peroxidases did not appear to increase mineralization of these chemicals. Results suggest that lignin peroxidases do not mediate rate limiting steps in organic pollutant degradation. Organic pollutants used in our studies include pentachlorophenol, crystal violet, phenanthrene, benzo(a)pyrene, and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene.