Desetoxilación completa de nonilfenol etoxilados en condiciones de desnitrificación

Abstract

Total mineralization of the nonionic surfactant nonylphenol ethoxylate is rarely observed due to the persistence of degradation intermediates under most environmental conditions. The object of this work was to elucidate the role of alternate electron acceptor on the biodegradation of NPEO. We applied 1H-NMR and GC-MS in order to characterize the formation of most significant metabolites by mixed microbial mixtures growing on NPEO under aerobic, fermentative, sufidogenic, or denitrifying conditions. The formation of nonylphenol coupled to nitrate reduction implies that the denitrifying consortium possesses an alternate pathway for the degradation of NPEO, which is not accessible under aerobic conditions.