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Applied Sciences
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Advances in Biodegradation of Natural and Synthetic Materials
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Advances in Biodegradation of Natural and Synthetic Materials

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 8060

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gerald Sims

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Interests: biodegradation; environmental chemistry; soil microbiology; environmental microbiology; microbial ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Herein is proposed an edited book on biodegradation of environmentally relevant substances. Citation patterns suggest overlapping interest among researchers studying the fate of familiar and emerging topics, suggesting a niche for a work of this type. Several thematic books published on biodegradation since 2015 were focused on narrow groups of compounds or materials. The proposed book would include contributions of original research and review articles on biodegradation or bioavailability of:

  • Synthetic polymers;
  • Surfactants and ionic liquids;
  • Mycotoxins;
  • Natural polymers;
  • Pesticides;
  • Hydrocarbons and heterocycles;
  • Advances in the study of biodegradation;
  • Advances in bioremediation technologies;
  • Mechanisms and genetics of biodegradation;
  • Effects of substances on biodegradation or bioavailability.

The target audience would include professionals in environmental engineering, wastewater treatment, environmental science, regulatory policy, agriculture, soil science, microbiology, and academics engaged in biodegradation research. Contributors would be identified via a joint effort between the Editorial Office and the Guest Editor. The Guest Editor will contribute a single article.

Prof. Dr. Gerald Sims
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biodegradation
  • Soil bioremediation
  • Wastewater treatment
  • Synthetic and natural polymers
  • Pesticides
  • Mycotoxins
  • Hydrocarbons and heterocycles
  • Surfactants and ionic liquids

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1097 KiB  
Article
Degradation of Brominated Organic Compounds (Flame Retardants) by a Four-Strain Consortium Isolated from Contaminated Groundwater
by Noa Balaban, Faina Gelman, Alicia A. Taylor, Sharon L. Walker, Anat Bernstein and Zeev Ronen
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6263; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146263 - 6 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2142
Abstract
Biodegradation of pollutants in the environment is directly affected by microbial communities and pollutant mixture at the site. Lab experiments using bacterial consortia and substrate mixtures are required to increase our understanding of these processes in the environment. One of the deficiencies of [...] Read more.
Biodegradation of pollutants in the environment is directly affected by microbial communities and pollutant mixture at the site. Lab experiments using bacterial consortia and substrate mixtures are required to increase our understanding of these processes in the environment. One of the deficiencies of working with environmental cultures is the inability to culture and identify the active strains while knowing they are representative of the original environment. In the present study, we tested the aerobic microbial degradation of two brominated flame retardants, tribromo-neopentyl alcohol (TBNPA) and dibromo neopentyl glycol (DBNPG), by an assembled bacterial consortium of four strains. The four strains were isolated and plate-cultured from a consortium enriched from the impacted groundwater underlying the Neot Hovav industrial area (Negev, Israel), in which TBNPA and DBNPG are abundant pollutants. Total degradation (3–7 days) occurred only when the four-strain consortium was incubated together (25 °C; pH −7.2) with an additional carbon source, as both compounds were not utilized as such. Bacterial growth was found to be the limiting factor. A dual carbon–bromine isotope analysis was used to corroborate the claim that the isolated strains were responsible for the degradation in the original enriched consortium, thus ensuring that the isolated four-strain microbial consortium is representative of the actual environmental enrichment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biodegradation of Natural and Synthetic Materials)
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12 pages, 1972 KiB  
Communication
Selective Removal of Diesel Oil Hydrocarbons in Aerobic Bioremediation
by Carla Maria Raffa, Fulvia Chiampo, Andrea Vergnano and Alberto Godio
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 1471; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041471 - 6 Feb 2021
Viewed by 2121
Abstract
In soil bioremediation, the main target is the removal of pollutants to the maximum extent. Careful monitoring of pollution concentration provides information about the process efficacy and removal efficiency. Moreover, a detailed analysis of residual pollution composition provides a detailed picture of single [...] Read more.
In soil bioremediation, the main target is the removal of pollutants to the maximum extent. Careful monitoring of pollution concentration provides information about the process efficacy and removal efficiency. Moreover, a detailed analysis of residual pollution composition provides a detailed picture of single compound removal or presence, especially of interest when pollution is constituted by a mixture of chemical species. This paper shows the first results of a study on the speciation of diesel oil compound removal from soils by aerobic remediation. The experimental study was carried out in a microcosm using indigenous microorganisms and adopting the biostimulation strategy with a mineral salt medium for bacteria. The microcosm contained 200 g of dry soil and 14 g of diesel oil with a carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) equal to 180 and water content (u%) equal to 12% by mass. The residual pollution concentration in soil was monitored for 138 days to evaluate both the overall removal efficiency and that for the main groups of hydrocarbons. The results showed that the pollution composition changed during the test because of the different rate of metabolization for the single compounds: the overall removal efficiency was about 65%, and that of different hydrocarbon clusters was between 53% and 88%. The monitoring data also allowed the kinetic study of the degradation process, which was better modeled by a second-order kinetic model than by a first-order one. These findings were confirmed by analyzing other microcosms with different operative conditions (C/N = 120, 180 and u% = 8%, 12%, 15% by mass). The proposed methodology may be useful for the evaluation of compliance to concentration limits imposed by law. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biodegradation of Natural and Synthetic Materials)
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11 pages, 19752 KiB  
Article
Biosynthesis of Polyhydroxyalkanoates from Defatted Chlorella Biomass as an Inexpensive Substrate
by Chanin Khomlaem, Hajer Aloui and Beom Soo Kim
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(3), 1094; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11031094 - 25 Jan 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3184
Abstract
Microalgae biomass has been recently used as an inexpensive substrate for the industrial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). In this work, a dilute acid pretreatment using 0.3 N of hydrochloric acid (HCl) was performed to extract reducing sugars from 10% (w/v [...] Read more.
Microalgae biomass has been recently used as an inexpensive substrate for the industrial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). In this work, a dilute acid pretreatment using 0.3 N of hydrochloric acid (HCl) was performed to extract reducing sugars from 10% (w/v) of defatted Chlorella biomass (DCB). The resulting HCl DCB hydrolysate was used as a renewable substrate to assess the ability of three bacterial strains, namely Bacillus megaterium ALA2, Cupriavidus necator KCTC 2649, and Haloferax mediterranei DSM 1411, to produce PHA in shake flasks. The results show that under 20 g/L of DCB hydrolysate derived sugar supplementation, the cultivated strains successfully accumulated PHA up to 29.7–75.4% of their dry cell weight (DCW). Among the cultivated strains, C. necator KCTC 2649 exhibited the highest PHA production (7.51 ± 0.20 g/L, 75.4% of DCW) followed by H. mediterranei DSM 1411 and B. megaterium ALA2, for which a PHA content of 3.79 ± 0.03 g/L (55.5% of DCW) and 0.84 ± 0.06 g/L (29.7% of DCW) was recorded, respectively. Along with PHA, a maximum carotenoid content of 1.80 ± 0.16 mg/L was produced by H. mediterranei DSM 1411 at 120 h of cultivation in shake flasks. PHA and carotenoid production increased by 1.45- and 1.37-fold, respectively, when HCl DCB hydrolysate biotransformation was upscaled to a 1 L of working volume fermenter. Based on FTIR and 1H NMR analysis, PHA polymers accumulated by B. megaterium ALA2 and C. necator KCTC 2649 were identified as homopolymers of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate). However, a copolymer of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) with a 3-hydroxyvalerate fraction of 10.5 mol% was accumulated by H. mediterranei DSM 1411. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biodegradation of Natural and Synthetic Materials)
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