Investigation of the Kinetic Regularities of the Process of Biodegradation of Betaine Surfactant by Bacteria of the Genus Pseudomonas

Abstract

Surfactants are extremely common organic compounds that enter the environment in large quantities in the form of household and industrial wastewater. The toxicity of surfactants for biological systems, the high concentration of substances and the duration of the bioremediation process of polluted ecosystems requires improving the biotechnology of microbial wastewater treatment for surfactants. The purpose of this work is to study the kinetic laws of the reaction of the biological decomposition of betaine surfactants. Pseudomonas bacteria were used as bio-destructors of the surfactants. Kinetic data were obtained to create the possibility of further optimization of research on the biodegradation of toxic organic substances. The strains that were promising destructors of cocamidopropylbetaine were selected. The toxicity of high concentrations of surfactants in relation to microorganisms of the genus Pseudomonas was proven. Safe values of the surfactant concentration for conducting biodegradation tests were found. A kinetic model of the biodestructive process was constructed. It proves that the processes of biodegradation are described by a kinetic equation of the first order. With the derived equation, it is possible to determine the time interval of biodegradation of cocamidopropylbetaine to the specified values by means of mathematical calculations.