Evaluation of Different Culture Conditions of Clostridium bifermentans DPH-1 for Cost Effective PCE Degradation

Clostridium bifermentans strain DPH-1 has already been found to dechlorinate perchloroethylene (PCE) to cis-dichloroethylene (cis-DCE) via trichloroethylene (TCE). In this study, our investigation on different culture conditions of this DPH-1 strain was extended to find a more efficient and cost effective growth medium composition for this DPH-1 strain in bioremediation practices. Temperature dependency of strain DPH-1 showed that the growth starting time and PCE degradation at $15^{\circ}C$ was very slow compared to that of $30^{\circ}C$, but complete PCE degradation occurred in both cases. For the proper utilization of strain DPH-1 in more cost effective bioremediation practices, a simpler composition of an effective media was studied. One component of the culture medium, yeast extract, had been substituted by molasses, which served as a good source of electron donor. The DPH-1 strain in the medium containing molasses, in the presence of $K_{2}HPO_4\;and\;KH_{2}PO_4$, showed identical bacterial multiplication (0.135 mg protein $mL^{-1}h^{-1}$) and PCE degradation rates ($0.38\;{\mu}M/h$) to those of the yeast extract containing medium.