ENHANCED DEGRADATION OF CAPTAN BY IMMOBILIZED CELLS OF BACILLUS CIRCULANS

Abstract

The possibility of using Bacillus circulans in degrading captan was evaluated by comparing the captan degradation rate by freely suspended and immobilized cells on agar, sodium alginate (SA), polyacrylamide (PA) and polyurethane-foam (PUF) in batch and repeated batch degradations. Under batch degradations, 50, 60, 72, and 88% of 0.1% captan was degraded by freely suspended cells, agar-, SA-, and PA-immobilized cells, respectively in 72 h; whereas 15, 47.5, 67.7 and 75% of 0.2% captan was degraded by freely suspended cells, agar-, SA-, and PA-immobilized cells, respectively in 72 h. However, 0.1 and 0.2% captan were completely degraded by PUF-immobilized cells in 48 and 72 h, respectively. Under repeated batch degradations, PUF-immobilized cells were reused more than 40 cycles for 72 h without losing the captan degradation ability, while the cells immobilized on agar, SA, and the PA could be reused for 15, 20, and 25 cycles, respectively. A significant 0.1% captan degradation by PUF-immobilized cells was observed at pH 4.0 - 10.0 and 20 - 40 ºC ranges. In contrast, freely suspended cells only degraded captan at optimum pH of 7.0 and 30 ºC. The PUF-immobilized cells were able to significantly degrade captan for 120 days at 4 ºC without losing the captan degradation ability; whereas this ability was lost in 120 days for freely suspended cells. Since the application of captan leads to pollution and reduces soil fertility, the use of immobilized cells of Bacillus circulans can thus be a better cost-effective strategy to decontaminate captan polluted sites.