| The purpose of this project was to evaluate the biodegradation of two commercial herbicides (Gramoxone and Matancha) by the bacteria Pseudomonas putida. Gramoxones active ingredient is Paraquat (1,1-dimethyl-4,4-bipyridylium) and Matanchas is 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxiacetic acid). To carry out the biodegradation experiments, a factorial design 2³ was executed, where the independent variables were: herbicide concentration, nutrient concentration and the use or no use of activated charcoal (AC) in the same experiment with bacteria. Duplicate experiments were performed for a period of three days using 500 ml bioreactors. The best results obtained when no AC was used were: 47,29% degradation for Gramoxone (by UV/VIS) and 68.72% for Matancha (by HPLC). The... |
