African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (3), pp. 296-303, 5 February 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Biodegradation of phenol by Pseudomonas pictorum on immobilized with chitin

Gurusamy Annadurai, Lai Yi Ling and Jiunn-Fwu Lee^*

Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Central University Chung-Li, 320, Taiwan, ROC.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: gannadurai@gmail.com, jflee@ncuen.ncu.edu.tw,  Tel: +886-3-4227151-34658. Fax: +886-3-4226742.

Accepted 18 January, 2007

Biodegradation of phenol using Pseudomonas pictorum (ATCC 23328) a potential biodegradant of phenol was investigated under different operating conditions. Chitin was chosen as a support material and then partially characterized physically and chemically. The pH of the solution was varied over a range of 7 – 9. The maximum adsorption and degradation capacity of bacteria immobilized with chitin at 30^oC when the phenol concentration was 0.200 mg/L is at pH 7.0. The results showed that the equilibrium data for all phenol-degradation sorbent systems fitted the Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson model best. Kinetic modeling of phenol degradation was done using the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order rate expression. The biodegradation data generally fit the intraparticle diffusion rate equation from which biodegradation rate constant, diffusion rate constant were determined.

Key words: Adsorption, biodegradation, phenol, Pseudomonas pictorum, isotherm and kinetic studies.