Polychlorinated biphenyls fractioning assessment in aqueous bioremediation assy with phanerochaete chrysosporium

Abstract

Thanks to growing environmental concerns in public opinion, bioremediation processes are more and more used to decontaminate soils from organic compounds. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to be world wide spread persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium is able to degrade PCBs in water, and soil As POPs, PCBs can also be adsorbed onto organic matter, such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium mycelium. This study aims at estimating the fractioning of truly degraded PCBs, adsorbed PCBs and residual PCBs in an aqueous bioremediation assay with Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Di-, tri- tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta-chlorinated biphenyls (IUPAC numbers: PCB28, PCB52, PCB101, PCB118, PCB138, PCB153, PCB180) are extracted from 500 mL aqueous bioremediation assays using a liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane. Analyses are performed on a high resolution gas chromatography coupled with a low resolution mass spectrometry. The study reveals that the adsorbed PCBs fraction ranges from 42% to 54%, whereas the degraded one ranges from 39% to 49%. No PCBs were detected in the residual water (limit of detection: 13 ng.L-1).