Polyethylene Terephthalate Degradation by Microalga Chlorella vulgaris Along with Pretreatment

Abstract

The current research explored the potential of microalgal species Chlorella vulgaris and Pretreatment to remediate plastic waste. It was concluded from the results that Pretreatment had a marked effect on the cracking and alteration of plastic polymer, which helped to grow microbial species on the cracked surface as evident by Compound Microscopy (CM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. FTIR data also supported the notion that in the absence of any pretreatment, the microbial species were not able to mediate plastic biodegradation efficiently as the nature of functional groups was different in the presence and absence of Pretreatment. GCMS analysis revealed that the microbial specie could produce the biodegradation products which were likely to be found in the structure of PET, including alkanes ester, fatty acids, benzoic acid, and aromatics and the most toxic product of biodegradation is Bis (2-Ethyl hexyl phthalate), which is the biodegradation product of toxic ingredient of plastics that is phthalic acid.