Achromobacter denitrificans strain SP1 efficiently remediates di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate

This study describes how Achromobacter denitrificans strain SP1, a novel isolate from heavily plastics-contaminated sewage sludge efficiently consumed the hazardous plasticizer, di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) as carbon source supplemented in a simple basal salt medium (BSM). Response surface methodology was employed for the statistical optimization of the process parameters such as temperature (32 C), agitation (200 rpm), DEHP concentration (10 mM), time (72 h) and pH (8.0). At these optimized conditions, experimentally observed DEHP degradation was 63%, while the predicted value was 59.2%; and the correlation coefficient between them was 0.998, i.e., highly significant and fit to the predicted model. Employing GC-MS analysis, the degradation pathway was partially deduced with intermediates such as mono(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate and 2-ethyl hexanol. Briefly, this first report describes A. denitrificans strain SP1 as a highly efficient bacterium for completely remediating the hazardous DEHP (10 mM) in 96 h in BSM (50% consumed in 60 h), which offers great potentials for efficiently cleaning the DEHP-contaminated environments such as soil, sediments and water upon its deployment. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.