The Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process for production of fuels is entrenched in several countries’ approach to meeting energy demands. However, the clean water deficit associated with the down-stream processes has made it necessary to explore bioremediation methods to ameliorate the consequences of its use. In this study, a consortium of bacteria was utilized for determination of biodegradation and removal rates, based on reduction in chemical oxygen demand of a mixture of acetone, propionic acid and hexanoic acid (APH) (all components of F-T wastewater), at an organic loading of 5 and 9.53 g CODL⁻¹. The individual degradation efficiencies of the F-T components were determined using a gas chromatograph. Further, the bacterial consortia responsible for the degradation of the mixture of APH were determined using metagenomics data derived from next-generation sequencing. The overall chemical oxygen demand removal was found to be 88.8% and 82.3% at organic loading of 5 and 9.53 g CODL⁻¹, respectively. The optimal degradation efficiency of acetone, propionic acid and hexanoic acid over a period of 10 days was found to be 100%, 85% and 75.8%, respectively. The primary microbial communities presumed to be responsible for APH degradation by phyla classification across all samples were found to be Proteobacteria (55–92%), Actinobacteria (5–33%) and Firmicutes (0.08–9%). Overall, the study has demonstrated the importance of aerobic consortia interactions in the degradation of components of the F-T wastewater.

中文翻译：

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揭示费托工艺废水中的丙酮，丙酸和己酸组分降解过程中的细菌群落特征。

费-托（FT）燃料生产工艺已根植于几个国家满足能源需求的方法中。然而，与下游工艺相关的净水短缺使得必须探索生物修复方法以改善其使用的后果。在这项研究中，以丙酮，丙酸和己酸（FTH的所有成分）的混合物中化学需氧量的减少为基础，利用细菌财团确定生物降解和去除率。装载5和9.53 g CODL ^-1。使用气相色谱仪测定FT组分的单个降解效率。此外，使用衍生自下一代测序的宏基因组学数据确定了负责APH混合物降解的细菌群落。发现有机负荷为5和9.53 g CODL ^-1时，总化学需氧量去除量分别为88.8％和82.3％。丙酮，丙酸和己酸在10天内的最佳降解效率分别为100％，85％和75.8％。在所有样本中，据推测可能是通过门类分类造成APH降解的主要微生物群落是变形杆菌（55–92％），放线菌（5–33％）和厚壁菌门（0.08-9％）。总的来说，该研究证明了好氧财团之间的相互作用在FT废水组分降解中的重要性。