The potential of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia KB2 for 1 phenol degradation 2 under exposure to heavy metal

The large diversity of chemical substances present in air, water, or soil makes it necessary tostudy their mutual impact on the effectiveness of microbiological decomposition ofcontaminants. This publication presents the results of the studies aimed at evaluating the effect of two biogenic heavy metals - zinc and copper - on the phenol biodegradation by the Stenotrophomonas maltophilia KB2 strain. The tests were carried out for concentrations ofmetals significantly exceeding the legally permitted wastewater values: for zinc up to13.3 g·m -3, and copper up to 3.33 g·m -3. In the tested metal concentration range, phenol biodegradation by the S. maltophilia KB2 strain was not significantly influenced by theintroduced dose of zinc. While the presence of copper inhibited both biomass growth andsubstrate degradation. Kinetic data of metal and phenol mixtures were analyzed and very goodcorrelations were obtained for the proposed equations. An equation consistents with the Hanand Levenspiel model was proposed for the system S. maltophilia KB2-phenol-copper, whilean equation consistents with the Kai model for the system St. maltophilia KB2-phenol-zinc. The simultaneous presence of Zn and Cu ions in the culture resulted in a stronger inhibition ofphenol biodegradation.