Abstract
Biological degradation of synthetic detergents and commercial detergents was examined under various condition. By incubation with domestic sewage at 30°, 20 ppm of linear alkyl benzenesulfonate (LAS), which is degraded easily in contrast to alkyl benzenesulfonate (ABS), was consumed aerobically to the extent of about 50% after 7 days but to a slight extent under anaerobic condition. On the other hand, it was observed that higher fatty acid sulfate was easily biodegraded under both aerobic and anaerobic condition for 1 day. Biodegradation of LAS was delayed slightly in the presence of nutrients. Detergent-grown cells separated from domestic sewage showed two optimal peaks to 2, 3, 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) reduction activities at pH 7.0 and 8.5.
