Patent ID: 6107079
Filing Date: 2000-08-22
Classification: B09C,C12N,C12P,C12R,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for degrading a mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), having an average of between 3 and 6 chlorine atoms per biphenyl and containing up to about 60% by weight of the chlorine atoms, in a soil which comprises the following steps:(a) growing Phanerochaete chrysosporium in a medium consisting essentially of a first carbon source and a first nitrogen source under nutrient-rich, non-ligninolytic conditions wherein the first carbon source is present in an amount equivalent to at least 56 mM glucose as the carbon source and the first nitrogen source is present in an amount equivalent to at least 24 mM of ammonium ion as the nitrogen source, which growing is without producing lignin peroxidase and Mn(II)-dependent peroxidases, before addition to the soil to produce Phanerochaete chrysosporium cells which can degrade the PCBs;(b) mixing the soil with the Phanerochaete chrysosporium of step (a), a second carbon source and a second nitrogen source in addition to and different from the first carbon source and first nitrogen source under the same nutrient-rich non-ligninolytic conditions as in step (a) in the soil; and(c) degrading of the mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls in the soil with the Phanerochaete chrysosporium to degrade the PCBs in the soil under the nutrient-rich non-ligninolytic conditions in the soil.