Degradation of multiple PAHs and co-contaminants by microbial consortia and their toxicity assessment

The anthropogenic activities toward meeting the energy requirements have resulted in an alarming rise in environmental pollution levels. Among pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the most predominant due to their persistent and toxic nature. Amidst the several pollutants depuration methods, bioremediation utilizing biodegradation is the most viable alternative. This study investigated the biodegradation efficacy using developed microbial consortium PBR-21 for 2–4 ringed PAHs named naphthalene (NAP), anthracene (ANT), fluorene (FLU), and pyrene (PYR). The removal efficiency was observed up to 100 ± 0.0%, 70.26 ± 4.2%, 64.23 ± 2.3%, and 61.50 ± 2.6%, respectively, for initial concentrations of 400 mg L⁻¹ for NAP, ANT, FLU, and PYR respectively. Degradation followed first-order kinetics with rate constants of 0.39 d⁻¹, 0.10 d⁻¹, 0.08 d⁻¹, and 0.07 d⁻¹ and half-life \(\left({t}_{1/2}\right)\) of 1.8 h, 7.2 h, 8.5 h, and 10 h, respectively. The microbial consortia were found to be efficient towards the co-contaminants with 1 mM concentration. Toxicity examination indicated that microbial-treated PAHs resulted in lesser toxicity in aquatic crustaceans (Artemia salina) than untreated PAHs. Also, the study suggests that indigenous microbial consortia PBR-21 has the potential to be used in the bioremediation of PAH-contaminated environment.

Graphical abstract