N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-degrading bacteria from activated sludge

Abstract

N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is a widely used solvent for many organic compounds and a component found in a vast array of chemical preparations. For this research paper, NMP degrading bacteria were isolated from two samples of activated sludge. They pertained to both Gram-negative and Gram-positive members, and belong to the Pseudomonas, Paracoccus, Acinetobacter and Rhodococcus genera. All the strains utilized 300 mg/L of NMP as the only source of carbon, energy and nitrogen over several days, and they were shown to additionally be able to degrade N-acetylphenylalanine (NAP). The growth of all the isolated strains was recorded at different NMP concentrations, to a maximum of 20 g/L.

High-strength N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-containing process wastewater treatment using sequencing batch reactor and membrane bioreactor: A feasibility study

“…The process water mainly contained NMP (1500-1600 mg/L), LiCl (0-150 mg/L) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) (0-800 mg/L), in which NMP accounted for ~90% of organic substances on average. The minerals were supplemented into the feed water, including K2HPO4 (0.18 g/L), Na2HPO4•12H2O (1.92 g/L), MgSO4•7H2O (0.1 g/L), FeSO4•7H2O (0.01 g/L), CaCl2 (0.01 g/L), and NaCl (0.5 g/L) [2].…”

“…However, our findings revealed that SBR was more feasible than MBR to treat the high-strength NMP-containing wastewater. In previous studies, NMP had proven to be readily biodegraded by air-dried activated sludge [1] or pure cultures (such as Pseudomonas, Paracoccus, Acinetobacter and Rhodococcus) isolated from the activated sludge [2,8]. Therefore, the high biodegradability of NMP compounds guarantees no shock loading to the SBR in treating high strength NMP-containing wastewater.…”

“…It has been widely used as a solvent for processing natural and synthetic organic polymers in many industries, such as petroleum industry, pharmaceutical industry, microelectronics industry, due to its high boiling point and polar properties [1][2][3]. Compared with other volatile and toxic organic solvents such as chlorinated hydrocarbons, NMP has high extraction and recovery yields, as well as relatively low energy requirement and environmental impacts [1,2,4].…”

“…could mineralize 90% of NMP (100-200 mg/L) at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h in a continuous reactor. Křížek et al [2] pointed out that Pseudomonas, Paracoccus, Acinetobacter and Rhodococcus genera isolated from activated sludge had capabilities in degrading NMP (300 mg/L) and achieved 74-92% organic carbon removals in 3 days. It was noted that these reported studies mainly focused on the biodegradation of NMP only by pure cultures or air-dried activated sludge, or in batch tests, or at a low concentration.…”

Improving the Hydrolysis Rate of the Renewable Poly(hexamethylene sebacate) Through Copolymerization of a Bis(pyrrolidone)-Based Dicarboxylic Acid

“…For example, the polymer of N , N ’-dimethylene-bis(pyrrolidone-4-carboxylic acid) (BP-C 2 ) and 1,6-hexanediol with a glass transition temperature of 24 °C and a M w of 78 kg/mol is reported to hydrolyze fully upon immersion in water for one year ( M w of 688 g/mol) [18]. Given the biodegradability of the structurally similar n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), BPDAs might also be biodegraded by bacteria belonging to the Pseudomonas , Paracoccus , Acinetobacter , and Rhodococcus genera existing in sewage [27,28,29]. However, we would like to stress that as the biodegradability of these monomers is not confirmed, this remains a point for future investigations.…”