Microbial remediation of NTO in aqueous industrial wastes

Abstract

The bioremediation of aqueous wastes containing 5-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (NTO) was investigated. The microorganism used is a Bacillus licheniformis strain, isolated from the contaminated solutions by enrichment techniques. The biodegradation was carried out in the waste (15 g l 31 NTO) and proceeded through the nitroreduction of NTO, followed by the ring cleavage of the formed primary amine 5-amino-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (ATO). Both steps were optimized and according to the optimal conditions, the nitroreduction of NTO is total in 24 h, while the degradation of ATO requires 2 weeks of incubation. The end products of the biodegradation were carbon dioxide (40%), urea and a polar compound, assumed to be hydroxyurea. A mechanism of ATO ring cleavage was postulated in the light of experimental data, and led us to propose an overall degradation sequence for NTO. ß

Biodegradation of IMX-101 explosive formulation constituents: 2,4-Dinitroanisole (DNAN), 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), and nitroguanidine

“…The broad diversity of microorganisms reported in the literature to degrade the individual IMX-101 compounds [15][16][17][19][20][21]23] along with rapid acclimation of most cultures (digester sludge, compost) observed in this study, suggest IMX-101 biodegradation may readily occur in engineered treatments systems and potentially in natural systems. Our findings that the compounds in IMX-101 are likely used a nitrogen source are in keeping with results previously reported for NQ.…”

“…Aerobic biodegradation to 5-amino-1,2,4-triazol-3-one, a structurally related compound to NTO, using Penicillium sp. and Bacillus licheniformi has been reported [22,23]. A total of 20 mg L −1 of NTO was reduced to urea by B. licheniformi under aerobic conditions with NTO provided as the only nitrogen source.…”

Outdoor dissolution of detonation residues of three insensitive munitions (IM) formulations

“…Although NTO has low mammalian toxicity (London and Smith, 1985) both NTO and DNAN can form toxic transformation products (Le Campion et al, 1999;Davies and Provatas, 2006). AP is known to interfere with iodine uptake and so affects thyroid function (Motzer, 2001;Crane et al, 2005).…”

A fast liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QToF-MS) method for the identification of organic explosives and propellants

“…A limited number of LC/MS methods to detect targeted explosives have been developed for the analysis of specialised explosives including HNS [38][39][40], CL-20 [20,[41][42][43][44], DNAN [45,46], FOX-7 [47], and PYX [48], however procedures for the analysis of the specialised explosives such as NTO and HME including R-salt typically still rely on the use of UV detection [49][50][51][52][53][54][55].…”