Degradation of ferric EDTA by Burkhol cepacia

EDTA, the target compound of this study from the effluent of secondary biotreatment units, can be biodegraded by special microorganisms. So far, there are three species of microorganisms—Agrobacterium, Gram-negative BNCI, and DSM9103—that can degrade EDTA and are published in the literature. We have successfully isolated a bacterial strain that can degrade EDTA. It was identified as Burkhol cepacia, an aerobic species, elliptically shaped with a length of 5–15 μm. The growth medium contains 1000 mg/L of ferric-EDTA as carbon source, 750 mg/L of (NH₄)₂SO₄+(NH₂)₂CO as nitrogen source, and 1000 mg/L of KH₂PO₄ as phosphorus source, and mineral factors such as Fe and Mg. Incubated at pH, 7.0, 30°C, and 150 rpm on a shaker for 15 d, the average specific growth rate of this microbe is 0.135 d⁻¹, which shows that the respective degradation efficiency of Fe-EDTA and Cu-EDTA is 90 and 75% individually.