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Biodegradation of LDPE by isolated fungi in a controlled solid waste medium. Fungi, including Aspergillus fumigatus, terreus and Fusarium solani, were isolated from samples taken from an aerobic aged municipal landfill in Tehran. The progress of the process was monitored by measurement of total organic carbon (TOC), pH, temperature and moisture.
Biodegradation of LDPE by isolated fungi in a controlled solid waste medium. Fungi, including Aspergillus fumigatus, terreus and Fusarium solani, were isolated from samples taken from an aerobic aged municipal landfill in Tehran. The progress of the process was monitored by measurement of total organic carbon (TOC), pH, temperature and moisture.
Biodegradation of LDPE by isolated fungi in a controlled solid waste medium. Fungi, including Aspergillus fumigatus, terreus and Fusarium solani, were isolated from samples taken from an aerobic aged municipal landfill in Tehran. The progress of the process was monitored by measurement of total organic carbon (TOC), pH, temperature and moisture.
Biodegradation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by isolated fungi
in solid waste medium
Sahebnazar Zahra, Shojaosadati Seyed Abbas * , Mohammad-Taheri Mahsa, Nosrati Mohsen Biotechnology Group, Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, P.O. Box 14115-143, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Accepted 21 September 2009 Available online 17 November 2009 a b s t r a c t In this study, biodegradation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by isolated landll-source fungi was evaluated in a controlled solid waste medium. The fungi, including Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus ter- reus and Fusarium solani, were isolated from samples taken from an aerobic aged municipal landll in Tehran. These fungi could degrade LDPE via the formation of a biolm in a submerged medium. In the sterilized solid waste medium, LPDE lms were buried for 100 days in a 1-L ask containing 400 g sterile solid waste raw materials at 28 C. Each fungus was added to a separate ask. The moisture content and pH of the media were maintained at the optimal levels for each fungus. Photo-oxidation (25 days under UV-irradiation) was used as a pretreatment of the LDPE samples. The progress of the process was mon- itored by measurement of total organic carbon (TOC), pH, temperature and moisture. The results obtained from monitoring the process using isolated fungi under sterile conditions indicate that these fungi are able to grow in solid waste medium. The results of FT-IR and SEM analyses show that A. terreus and A. fumigatus, despite the availability of other organic carbon of materials, could utilize LDPE as carbon source. While there has been much research in the eld of LDPE biodegradation under solid conditions, this is the rst report of degradation of LDPE by A. fumigatus. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Currently, more than 150 million tons of petroleum-based syn- thetic polymers are produced each year (Shimao, 2001). Some polymers, such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE), are used in many applications due to their useful physical and chemical prop- erties. LDPE is durable, light-weight, easily processed and charac- teristically inert, and these properties make it appropriate for many industrial uses (Mark, 1999). However, LDPE is hardly de- graded after disposal, which pollutes the environment and disturbs the ecosystem (Bastioli, 2005). The increasing levels of LDPE waste, decreasing landll capacity and very slow rate of LDPE degradation in the environment have caused the research tendency to decrease the amount of waste LDPE buried in the nature. Current methods for addressing the problem include recycling, chemical recovery, pyrolysis and hydrolysis, incineration (with energy recovery) and biodegradation (Hamid, 2000). Recently, efforts have focused on the biodegradation of LDPE wastes due to the disadvantages of other methods such as cost and pollution. Microorganisms play a signicant role in biological decomposition of materials (Shah et al., 2008), however, a major obstacle to biodegradation is the resistance of LDPE to biological attack because of its hydrophobicity, high molecular weight and its lack of functional groups recognized by microbial enzymatic systems (Hamid, 2000). Biodegradation of LDPE could be acceler- ated either by polymer pretreatments such as photo-oxidation, thermo-oxidation and chemical-oxidation to create additional functional groups (C@O bonds). The C@O bonds ready the polymer surface for microorganisms attack. In other word, basically the rst step in polymer biodegradation is oxidation (Albertson et al., 1998; Brown et al., 1974; Chiellini et al., 2003; Cornell et al., 1984; Pan- dey and Singh, 2001), or by inoculating soil or compost with micro- organisms (bacteria and fungi) that are able to biodegrade LDPE (Gilan et al., 2004; Shah, 2007). In most studies, fungi were consid- ered for the degradation of LDPE due to their ability to form hydro- phobic proteins that can attach to the polymer surface (Seneviratne et al., 2006; Kershaw and Talbot, 1998), their genera- tion of degrading enzymes that are well-matched to the insoluble LDPE (Shah et al., 2008), the faster growth of fungal biomass in soil compared to bacteria (Kim and Rhee, 2003), and the growth exten- sion and penetration into other locations through the distribution of hyphae. Also, fungi survive environments with low nutrient availability, low pH and low moisture well. However, there are still many understudied areas of research in the degradation of LDPE by fungi. Characterization of LDPE degra- dation by solid waste-source fungi is among these attractive topics because of their compatibility with a waste-rich environment (such as landll and composting) that contains a variety of dis- carded polymers. 0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2009.09.027 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 82883341; fax: +98 21 82883381. E-mail addresses: sa_shoja@modares.ac.ir, shoja_sa@modares.ac.ir (S.S. Abbas). Waste Management 30 (2010) 396401 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Waste Management j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ wasman The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of fungi that could be found naturally in landll to degrade LDPE. Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus terreus and Fusarium solani were isolated from aerobic area in the typical aged landll because of their dem- onstrated ability to degrade LDPE. The performances of these three fungi in solid waste medium were investigated in this work. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Materials Commercial granules of LDPE were provided from one of the stocks of Irans National Petrochemical Commercial Company (INPCC). LDPE lms with thickness of 15 lm were made from this material using a blowing lm extruder. LDPE lms were irradiated for 25 days with UV-irradiation in a laminar ow cabinet and then cut into pieces of about 1 1 cm. 2.2. Isolation of fungi A random sample of landll soil (1 g) and fragmented LDPE that had been buried in soil for 10 years were suspended into 100 ml of mediumA (0.3 g NH 4 NO 3 , 0.5 g K 2 HPO 4 , 0.1 g NaCl, 0.02 g MgSO 4 , 0.01 g yeast extract, 1 lg biotin, 20 lg riboavin, 1 lg folic acid, 20 lg nicotinic acid in 100 mL). Fragmented and irradiated LDPE (1 g) was also added to 100 ml of medium A as a carbon source. The culture was incubated with shaking for 1 month at 180 rpm and 28 C. Then, 1 ml of the suspension was put into 4 ml of fresh medium A and incubated for 1 week. A 5 ll sample of this culture was spread onto medium B (0.3 g NH 4 NO 3 , 0.5 g K 2 HPO 4 , 0.1 g NaCl, 0.02 g MgSO 4 7H 2 O, 0.5 g irradiated polyethylene powder, 2 g agar, 1 lg biotin, 1 lg folic acid, 20 lg nicotinic acid in 100 mL), and the plates were incubated at 28 C for another 3 weeks. To conrm LDPE utilization by the isolated fungi, various experiments were carried out culturing fungi in medium B plus LDPE, medium B plus LDPE without vitamins, medium B without LDPE, medium B without LDPE and vitamins at 28 C for 25 days. 2.3. Identication of isolated fungi Fungi grew on medium B plus LDPE and medium B plus LDPE without vitamins. Colonies were then identied morphologically. In addition, the genomic DNA of one of the species was extracted and ITS region PCR-amplied and sequenced (Naderi, 2008). From the bioinformatic analysis of the sequencing data, the isolated fun- gal strains were identied as A. fumigatus, A. terreus and F. solani. 2.4. Preparation of spores from the isolated fungi Isolated fungi were cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates at 28 C. After completion of sporulation, spores of fungi on the plate surface were washed with physiological serum includ- ing peptone (0.1% v/v) and Tween 80 (0.05% v/v), then transferred to glycerol solution (20% v/v) at a concentration of 5 10 7 spores/mL before storage at 70 C. 2.5. Evaluation of LDPE degradation in liquid culture Spores of each fungus were incubated on PDA medium at 28 C for 32 h, and then hyphae were harvested to inoculate PDB med- ium. Cultivation was done at 30 C on a rotary shaker at 180 rpm for 2 days. A 10-ml sample of the suspension described above was also used to inoculate medium C (0.3 g NH 4 NO 3 , 0.5 g K 2 HPO 4 , 0.1 g NaCl, 0.02 g MgSO 4 7H 2 O, 0.1 g yeast extract in 100 mL). Cultures were incubated at 28 C on a rotary shaker at 180 rpm for 2 weeks. A 10-ml sample of this suspension was again added to 100 ml of medium D (0.3 g NH 4 NO 3 , 0.5 g K 2 HPO 4 , 0.1 g NaCl, 0.02 g MgSO 4 7H 2 O, 0.5 g fragmented and irradiated LDPE as the sole carbon source in 100 mL) in a 250 ml shaking ask. Shak- ing was carried out at 180 rpm and 28 C. In order to evaluate LDPE degradation, after 3 months, a small amount of ethanol was added to asks, and the asks were placed in an oven at 80 C for 24 h. To separate the remaining LDPE pieces, the mixture was ltered and the LDPE on the lter paper was added to an Erlenmeyer ask con- taining water and Tween 80 and shaken for 12 h. The mixture was ltered, and the LDPE on the lter paper was washed with ethanol and then dried at 25 C. Scanning electron microscopy was used to check for changes in the surface of LDPE samples. 2.6. Detection of LDPE degradation in solid waste medium 2.6.1. Fermentation process The composition of raw materials used for the process was as follows (dry weight): 36% vegetable waste, 20% rice, 2% paper waste, 29% mature compost and 13% sawdust as a bulking agent. The C/N ratio of the initial material was approximately 29:1. Fungi were inoculated separately in the solid waste medium. The initial moisture content and pH were adjusted to optimal values for each of the fungi by addition of distilled water and HCl. The optimized moisture content and pH for A. fumigatus, A. terreus and F. solani were as follows: 50% and 7, 40% and 7, 70% and 5, respectively (Sahebnazar, 2008). Approximately 400 g of raw materials were mixed and autoclaved at 121 C and 14 psi for 15 min, loaded into a 1000-ml Erlenmeyer ask, and then LDPE pieces (1 1 cm) were mixed with the materials. Three Erlenmeyer asks were prepared and each of them was inoculated with 5 10 7 spores/g (dry mate- rial). Erlenmeyer asks were covered with glass wool to reduce heat loss to the surrounding environment (Fig. 1). Aeration was performed by slowly mixing the contents of the ask daily. Mois- ture content was controlled by adding an appropriate amount of sawdust. Sampling was performed weekly and samples were com- pletely homogenized for analyses. After 100 days, the process was terminated, and LDPE pieces were washed in ethanol and distilled water and then dried. Samples of LDPE were analyzed for biodegradation. Fig. 1. Schematic of the compost system. S. Zahra et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 396401 397 2.6.2. Measuring the chemical and physicochemical parameters The moisture content of materials was determined by drying the samples at 105 C for 24 h (Tiquia and Tam, 1998). The TOC was measured using potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid (Baruah and Barthakur, 1997). The pH value of an aqueous extract was measured using a digital pH meter. The extract was obtained by mechanically shaking the samples for 2 min and collecting the supernatant after centrifugation at 5300 rpm for 15 min at a solidwater ratio of 1:10 (wet weight/volume) for 1 h (Zhu, 2007). 2.6.3. Analysis of LDPE degradation Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was used to examine changes in the surface of LDPE samples during their deg- radation. LDPE lms were coated with gold by BAL-TEC-SCDOOS, and the surface was investigated using a Philips-X LP30 scanning electron microscope. Structural changes in the LDPE surface was investigated using the EQUINOX 55 FT-IR spectrometer. A spectrum was taken from 400 to 4000 wavenumbers cm 1 for each LDPE lm. Molecular weight changes of polyethylene were measured by high-temperature gel-permeation chromatography (HT-GPC) with a thermostat operating at 140 C and tetrachlorobenzene (TCB) as the liquid phase. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Monitoring of the process The temperature increased due to the accumulation of fungal metabolic heat and biodegradation of organic compounds, and reached 36 C, 35 C and 31.5 C for A. terreus, F. solani and A. fumig- atus, respectively. Afterwards, the temperature of the asks fell to the environmental temperature. The decrease of temperature re- sulted from a depletion of organic matter (Grima et al., 2002) (Fig. 2). The pH value is a key factor for the survival and activity of fungi. However, environmental pH varies according to the metabolites present. Generally, the pHshould be between 7 and 9. In this study, the pH increased early in the process and leveled off near 9 for all fungi. This is due to ammonication of nitrogen components (Fig. 3). The moisture content varied over time as shown in Fig. 4. It was observed that in all experiments, moisture increased along with the process that resulted from the production of water during the fungi growth in aerobic condition. In other hand, generation of the carbon dioxide (in an aerobic metabolism) results in de- crease in the amount of the total organic carbon (TOC). Previous investigators mentioned that moisture content is an important factor affecting microbial activity in the process and ultimately the rate of degradation (Davis, 2005; Liang et al., 2003). On one hand, a lack of moisture leads to a decrease of the fungal metabolic and the developmental rates. Conversely, excess moisture causes the packing down of substrate and anaerobiosis (Grima et al., 2002). The best fungi growth is happened in moisture content range of 5070%. That is why the moisture content must be controlled during a successful fungi growth in process. In this study, sawdust was added when the moisture content surplused 70%. TOC decreased signicantly during the process. The initial burst might be causedbydecompositionof easilydegradedTOC. However, difcult-to-degrade TOC, suchas lignin, wouldbe decomposedgrad- ually in curing phase (Solano et al., 2001). In this study, the largest decrease of the TOC occurred from the beginning to the 28th day as TOC concentration decreased from its initial amount of Fig. 2. Temperature prole for the composting process with each fungus. Fig. 3. pH prole for the composting process with each fungus. Fig. 4. Moisture prole for the composting process with each fungus. Fig. 5. TOC prole for the composting process with each fungus. 398 S. Zahra et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 396401 3926.6%, 25% and 24.6%by the individual growth of different fungi A. terreus, A. fumigatus and F. solani, respectively. However, after the curing phase more TOCdecrease was happenedtoo. At the endof the process, the TOC concentrations were 22.5%, 18.7% and 22.6% for A. terreus, A. fumigatus and F. solani, respectively (Fig. 5). 3.2. Scanning electron microscopy analysis Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to monitor changes inthe surface of LDPEsamples during the process. SEMpho- tomicrographs (Fig. 6) of samples before process had a smooth sur- face with no defects (Fig. 6a). However, after process with A. terreus and A. fumigatus, the samples possessed pitted and eroded surfaces (Fig. 6c and e). The pits were observed on the surface, sug- gesting that the fungi penetrate into the LDPE matrix during degra- dation. Figs. 6d and f indicate penetration of fungal hyphae into the LDPE matrix. The surface of the polymer after biological attack was physically weak and readily disintegrated under mild pressure. For- mation of biolms of A. terreus and A. fumigatus was evident on the surface and was considered to be a result of the surface moistness. Water couldspreadsmoothlyonthesurfaceof UVexposedLDPElm because the surface had been modied to be hydrophilic. Therefore, microorganisms could also expand their colonies over the surface and form a fungal biolm. LDPE degradation by A. terreus is consis- tent with results obtained previously (Shah et al., 2008). Fig. 6b shows that F. solani did not degrade the surface of LDPE signicantly. This nding is not consistent with previous results (Otake et al., 1995; Shah et al., 2008). This is may be due to the conditions used for the growth of the fungus in this experiment, and further investi- gation and optimization may be necessary. Fig. 6. SEM micrographs of LDPE lms before and after incubation with each fungus for 100 days. (a) Blank (no UV-irradiation, no incubation); (b) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Fusarium solani; (c) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus terreus; (d) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus terreus (penetration of hyphae into the LDPE matrix); (e) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus fumigatus; (f) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus fumigatus (penetration of hyphae into the LDPE matrix). S. Zahra et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 396401 399 Fig. 7. FT-IR spectra of LDPE lms before and after UV-irradiation and incubation with each fungus for 100 days from 400 to 4000 wavenumbers cm 1 . Fig. 8. FT-IR spectra of UV-irradiated LDPE lms before and after incubation with each fungus for 100 days. (a) Blank (no UV-irradiation, no incubation); (b) after UV- irradiation, no incubation; (c) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus terreus; (d) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Aspergillus fumigatus; (e) after UV-irradiation, incubation with Fusarium solani. Fig. 9. GPC results of UV-irradiated LDPE lms. (a) Before incubation with mixture of fungi; (b) after incubation with mixture of fungi. 400 S. Zahra et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 396401 3.3. FT-IR analysis The degradation of LDPE and the structural changes induced by degradation were analyzed by FT-IR analysis using characteristic bonds ranging from 1700 to 1760 cm 1 . Fig. 7 shows FT-IR spectra of LDPE lms before and after UV-irradiation and incubation with each fungus for 100 days from 400 to 4000 wavenumbers cm 1 . Changes of the C@O bond are magnied in Fig. 8. One main characteristic bond was observed for the irradiated LDPE that was not observed in the original samples. This bond was observed in the vicinity of 1720 cm 1 and assigned to the C@O group that was formed by UV-irradiation. The intensity of the C@O bond at 17001760 cm 1 was signicantly decreased dur- ing the process with fungi due to utilization of carbonyl group by fungi for LDPE degradation. These nding support Hasans results (Hasan et al., 2007). The surface area under curves was measured using Upos software, and the results were as follows: 0.00608, 0.10409, 0.08914, 0.07233 and 0.09527 for samples a, b, c, d and e, respectively (Fig. 8). According to these results, A. fumigatus was the most effective fungus for LDPE degradation. 3.4. HT-GPC analysis Molecular weight changes of polyethylene were shown in Fig. 9. Molecular weight the irradiated LDPE was decreased from its ini- tial amount of 6673954686 KD during incubation with a mixture of fungi. The results of present study are in agreement with the most reports on polyethylene biodegradation (Mueller, 2006; Albertsson and Karlsson, 1990). 4. Conclusion The results obtained from observing the process using isolated fungi under sterile conditions indicate that these fungi are able to grow in solid waste medium. The results from FT-IR and SEM analyses show that A. terreus and A. fumigatus, despite the avail- ability of organic carbon from other materials, could utilize LDPE as a carbon source. These fungi are able to degraded LDPE without any additives. UV-irradiation facilitated the biodegradation of LDPE. Regarding other work in the eld of LDPE biodegradation in solid waste environments such as Shah, Otake, Albertsson, Ohta- ki, Jitendra and Hasans studies, this is the rst report and investi- gation of LDPE degradation by A. fumigatus (Albertsson, 1980; Hasan et al., 2007; Ohtaki et al., 1998; Otake et al., 1995; Shah, 2007). 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