INVESTIGATION OF THE PHENOL-DEGRADING ABILITY AND METABOLIC PATHWAYS OF BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM LANDFILL LEACHATE

Phenol is an aromatic compound which can be found in many industrial wastewaters such as those of petrochemical, pharmaceutical industries and plastic manufacturing. Due to the toxic properties of phenols, outflow of the phenolcontaining wastewaters to the environment must be prevented. Therefore, a number of methods can be used of which microbial degradation processes are environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions. In this study, the biodegradation capacity of bacterial strains was analyzed at 100 mg/L initial phenol concentration. Among the strains studied Acinetobacter sp. CFII-97, Acinetobacter sp. CFII-99A, were able to degrade the phenol in 8, 12, 28 and 32 hours respectively. The other strains showed no growth and no phenol degradation during the experiment. Acinetobacter sp. CFII-97 and Acinetobacter sp. CFII-99A degraded phenol by the meta-cleavage pathway, whereas the Arthrobacter crystallopoietes CFII-104 and Arthrobacter crystallopoietes CFII-112 strains by the ortho-cleavage pathway.