FUNCTION AND PARAMETERS OF SORPTION AND PRIMARY BIODEGRADATION OF A SERIES OF ALKYL SULPHOSUCCINATES BY COMAMONAS-TERRIGENA N3H

Analysis of interaction of C. terrigena N3H with a series of eleven di alkyl and monoalkyl sulphosuccinates (ASS) under non-growth conditions have shown that this strain is capable of rapid and intense sorption of ASS with dialkyl length C4-C8. Subsequent ASS primary biodegradatio n generally followed a first-order reaction kinetics and was fully com pleted for linear dialkyl sulphosuccinates of C4-C6 chain range. The a bility of bacterial cells to complete tile ASS primary biodegradation appeared to be proportional to the rates of this process. ASS with lon ger chains were found partially (C8) or entirely (C10-C12) undegraded after prolonged interaction with the culture. For description of the k inetics of overall ASS removal by C. terrigena N3H, a function c = (c( o) - u) exp(-kt) + r has been suggested, where c is the concentration of surfactant in time, c, is the initial concentration of ASS, paramet er u is related to surfactant uptake, k represents the rate constant o f primary biodegradation and r means tile residual concentration of no ndegraded compound in infinite time. The parameters of this function, easily optimisable by nonlinear regression analysis, could serve as in put data for analysis of quantitative structure-biodegradability relat ionship of ASS surfactants.