Abstract
The aim of this study was to isolate and identify marine-derived bacteria which exhibited high tolerance to, and an ability to biodegrade, 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquids. The salinity and hydrocarbon load of some marine environments may induce selective pressures which enhance the ability of microbes to grow in the presence of these liquid salts. The isolates obtained in this study generally showed a greater ability to grow in the presence of the selected ionic liquids compared to microorganisms described previously, with two marine-derived bacteria, Rhodococcus erythropolis and Brevibacterium sanguinis growing in concentrations exceeding 1 M 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. The ability of these bacteria to degrade the selected ionic liquids was assessed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), and three were shown to degrade the selected ionic liquids by up to 59% over a 63-day test period. These bacterial isolates represent excellent candidates for further potential applications in the bioremediation of ionic liquid-containing waste or following accidental environmental exposure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e60806 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01 Apr 2013 |
Access to Document
- Isolation and Characterisation of 1-Alkyl-3- Methylimidazolium Chloride Ionic Liquid-Tolerant and Biodegrading Marine Bacteria
© 2013 The Authors This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.