The auxiliary effect of organic matter humic acids on the anaerobic biodegradation of tetrabromobisphenol A

ABSTRACT

As the typical organic matter, humic acids (HAs) were studied to explore its effect on the degradation of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) in anaerobic co-metabolic biodegradation systems. The highest degradation rate (86.9%) and lowest half-life (19.66 h) for TBBPA were obtained in the C-HA-T system (anaerobic co-metabolic reactor with glucose–HA/TBBPA as substrate), which illustrated that the efficiency of the biodegradation of TBBPA was improved due to the addition of HA. The 1,3-dibromo-2-methoxy-5-(2-(p-tolyloxy)propan-2-yl) benzene and 2,6-dibromo-4-(prop-1-en-2-yl)phenyl acetate were detected as the intermediate metabolites of TBBPA, which can conclude that HA has changed the biodegradation pathway of TBBPA. Further, the analysis of microbial diversity showed that Azoarcus was most likely responsible for the biodegradation of TBBPA in C-HA-T.

KEYWORDS:

• Tetrabromobisphenol A
• co-metabolism
• biodegradation
• humic acids
• auxiliary effect

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51608261), Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171466), Project of Science and Technology Department of Jiangsu Province (BE2016769), and the Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Pollution Control (PPC2016017) for their support of this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 51608261];Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control [2017];Project of Science and Technology Department of Jiangsu Province [Grant Number BE2016769];A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions [PAPD];Open fund by Jiangsu Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental Cleaning Materials [Grant Number KFK1503];Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [Grant Number BK20171466];the Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Pollution Control [Grant Number PPC2016017]