Dimethyl phthalate biodegradation by Dunaliella tertiolecta

Dunaliella tertiolecta has an ability to biodegrade dimethyl phthalate(DMP) was found in this study, and the average of the biodegradation rates were 11.3 mg/(L·d) and 30.5 mg/(L·d), and the average of the phthalic acid (PA) production rates were 1.5 mg/(L·d) and 3.6 mg/(L·d), for initial 100 mg/L and 300 mg/L DMP, respectively. The larger amount of accumulation by D. tertiolecta under higher DMP concentration may be responsible for the increase of biodegradation rate, and one of products of DMP biodegradation by D. tertiolecta may be PA. By fitting the process of DMP biodegradation by D. tertiolecta with a kinetic equation newly suggested, the standard deviations between calculated and observed values were 2.5 mg/L and 5.7 mg/L, respectively.