| Abstrakt: |
Bioremediation of non-chlorinated hydrocarbon-polluted soils is mainly affected by low bioavailability, due to hydrophobicity of these xenobiotics. In fact, several microorganisms can use hydrocarbons as energy and carbon sources, but their degradative activity takes place into the aqueous phase of the soil, where just traces of hydrocarbons are found because of their low water solubility. So, natural attenuation usually occurs in hydrocarbon-polluted soils, but this process is very slow. It has already been demonstrated that cyclodextrins increase hydrocarbon solubility and bioavailability and accelerate their biodegradation. In this work it was investigated if their efficacy on biodegradation of a model hydrocarbon (dodecane) is affected by the kind (α, β-, γ- and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin) and the concentration of cyclodextrin and by environmental factors such as temperature and composition of the microbial indigenous population. The results obtained show that all the tested factors influence the biodegradation kinetics. The best results were obtained with β-cyclodextrin at a concentration near to its water solubility limit; moreover, biodegradation rate increases with temperature and different microbial strains show different degradative activity and metabolic behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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