Microbial bioconversion of pollutants

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2864-6_3· OSTI ID:5905685

Golovleva, L A; Aliyeva, R M; Naumova, R P; Gvozdyak, P I ^[1]

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1. Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow (USSR)

Microorganisms totally detoxicate xenobiotics of various chemical structures, which are serious and, in some cases, very hazardous pollutants. At present, the efforts of a number of researchers promoted the establishment in this country of a collection of microorganisms able to degrade volatile toxic pollutants--toluene, isomeric xylenes, styrene, alpha-methylstyrene, crotonaldehyde; widely distributed xenobiotics chlorobenzoic acids; isomeric aryldicarboxylic acids; and ecologically hazardous pollutants such as aromatic nitrocompounds. The active strains-destructors are mainly representatives of the genera Pseudomonas and Rhodococcus. Research into their physiological characteristics, key enzymes, pathways of xenobiotics degradation, genetic mechanisms determining the degradation of these foreign compounds, and behaviour of the strains in a real environment made it possible to develop the theoretical principles of using these microbial cultures to purify real industrial wastes and remediate polluted areas of soil and water. Improvement of the methods of immobilizing the active xenobiotics-degrading strains on cheap and efficient carriers made it possible to significantly intensify the cleanup process of industrial wastes and eliminate a number of problems during the development of the biotechnologies for industrial waste cleanup. Successfully operated at present are the biotechnologies of the local cleanup of waste waters of terephthalate production, microbial purification of industrial waste waters in nylon-66 production from hexamethylenediamine, purification of coke production wastes from phenols, waste waters of polyisocyanate production from aromatic amines, local purification of waste waters in synthetic rubber production from alpha-methylstyrene, acetaldehyde production wastes from crotonaldehyde and mercury. 97 references.

• OSTI ID: 5905685
• Journal Information: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (United States), Journal Name: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (United States) Vol. 124; ISSN 0179-5953; ISSN RCTOE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BIODEGRADATION
BIOTECHNOLOGY
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
DOCUMENT TYPES
IMMOBILIZED CELLS
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
MICROORGANISMS
REDOX REACTIONS
REVIEWS
WASTES
XENOBIOTICS