A gas chromatographic investigation of secondary alcohol and ketone utilization by aerobic microorganisms

Low molecular weight aliphatic alcohols and ketones represent a major class of synthetic chemicals and find extensive use as commercial solvents. Their occasional appearance in certain types of industrial waste effluents is thus to be expected. Laboratory measurements of the response of these compounds to microbial treatment processes have generally employed indirect and non-specific analytical techniques. In this work, using a direct injection gas-liquid chromatographic technique for the analysis of complex mixtures of representative members of these chemical classes, response characteristics to a microbial culture of mixed population have been observed. An aerobic batch culture of heterogeneous population was grown on a proprietary nutrient, then selectively adapted to a mixture of 2-propanol, 2-butanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, 4-methyl-2-pentanol, and cyclohexanol in an inorganic salts medium. The adapted culture was capable of complete removal or transformation of the ketones corresponding to the secondary alcohols as well as the alcohols themselves. ..