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Revealing the bacterial community profiles during the degradation of acetone, propionic and hexanoic acids-components of wastewater from the Fischer-Tropsch process

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Abstract

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.

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Funding

IDEAS (UNISA), Department of Science and technology (DST) in partnership with Tata Motors Africa (Student bursary), DST–Bioremediation Research Consortium grant number DST/CON 019/2017 and South Africa Synthetic Oil Liquid (SASOL) Technology University Collaboration provided financial support.

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  1. Institute for the Development of Energy for African Sustainability (IDEAS), University of South Africa, Christiaan De Wet/Pioneer Dr. P.O. Box X6, Florida, 1710, South Africa

    Thapelo P. Malematja, Grace N Ijoma & Tonderayi Matambo

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Christiaan De Wet/Pioneer Dr. P.O. Box X6, Florida, 1710, South Africa

    Ramganesh Selvarajan

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  1. Thapelo P. Malematja
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Correspondence to Grace N Ijoma.

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Malematja, T.P., Ijoma, G.N., Selvarajan, R. et al. Revealing the bacterial community profiles during the degradation of acetone, propionic and hexanoic acids-components of wastewater from the Fischer-Tropsch process. Int Microbiol 23, 313–324 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10123-019-00106-z

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