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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4280-4285, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4280-4285.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Correlation of Biological Activity and Reactor Performance in Biofiltration of Toluene with the Fungus Paecilomyces variotii CBS115145

Inés García-Peña,1 Sergio Hernández,1 Richard Auria,2 and Sergio Revah1*

Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, P.O. Box 55-534, 09340 Mexico City, Mexico,1 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Laboratoire IRD de Microbiologie, Université de Provence, CESB/ESIL, Case 925, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France2

Received 18 November 2004/ Accepted 8 March 2005

A biofiltration system inoculated with the mold Paecilomyces variotii CBS115145 showed a toluene elimination capacity (EC) of around 250 g/m3 of biofilter/h, which was higher than the values usually reported for bacteria. P. variotii assimilated m- and p-cresols but not the o isomer. Initial toluene hydroxylation occurred both on the methyl group and through the p-cresol pathway. These results were corroborated by detecting benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and p-cresol as volatile intermediates. In liquid cultures with toluene as a substrate, the activity of toluene oxygenase (TO) was 5.6 nmol of O2/min/mg of biomass, and that of benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase was 16.2 nmol of NADH/min/mg of protein. Toluene biodegradation determined from the TO activity in the biofilter depended on the biomass distribution and the substrate concentration. The specific enzymatic activity decreased from 6.3 to 1.9 nmol of O2/min/mg of biomass along the reactor. Good agreement was found between the EC calculated from the TO activity and the EC measured on the biofilter. The results were confirmed by short-time biofiltration experiments. Average EC measured in different biofiltration experiments and EC calculated from the TO activity showed a linear relation, suggesting that in the biofilters, EC was limited by biological reaction. As the enzymatic activities of P. variotii were similar to those reported for bacteria, the high performance of the fungal biofilters can possibly be explained by the increased transfer of the hydrophobic compounds, including oxygen, from the gas phase to the mycelia, overcoming the transfer problems associated with the flat bacterial biofilms.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Process Engineering, UAM-Iztapalapa, P.O. Box 55-534, 09340 Mexico City, Mexico. Phone: (52) (55) 58-04-6538. Fax: (52) (55) 58-04-64-07. E-mail: srevah{at}xanum.uam.mx.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2005, p. 4280-4285, Vol. 71, No. 8
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.8.4280-4285.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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