Title: Heavy metal resistant anaerobic bacterial strains from brewery digester sludge

Authors: Nusara Sinbuathong; Pramote Sirirote; Daniel Watts; Suphang Chulalaksananukul

Addresses: Scientific Equipment and Research Division, Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute (KURDI), Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand ' Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand ' Otto H. York Center for Environmental Engineering and Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Salaya Campus, Nakornpathom, 73170, Thailand

Abstract: This work focused on the study of the types of heavy-metal-resistant anaerobic bacteria from the sludge of a brewery wastewater treatment plant exposed to high concentrations of dissolved Cd (II), Cu (II) and Zn (II). Characterisations were carried out by polymerase chain reaction of the 16S rRNA gene of bacterial strain. Using special culture media, two types of strong heavy metal-resistant bacterial strains were isolated. The first was a sulphate-reducing bacterium identified as Clostridium ganghwense strain HY-42-06. This strain of sulphate-reducing bacteria tolerated Cd (II), Cu (II) and Zn (II) at the tested concentrations. The other type was identified as consisting of a mixture of Micrococcus luteus, Wolinella succinogenes, Sporosarscina sp. PIC-C28 and Alicycliphilus sp. R-24604. The results found that these four dominant strains tolerated Cd (II) at 20 mg/l, only Wolinella succinogenes cannot tolerate Cu (II) at 2 mg/l while none of them tolerated Zn (II) at 30 mg/l.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; bioremediation; brewery sludge; detoxification; global warming; heavy metals; sulphate reducing bacteria; SRB; cadmium; copper; zinc; heavy metal resistant bacteria.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2013.053494

International Journal of Global Warming, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.127 - 134

Received: 17 May 2012
Accepted: 10 Oct 2012
Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article