Continuous degradation of phenanthrene in cloud point system by reuse of Sphingomonas polyaromaticivorans cells

Extractive biodegradation of phenanthrene by Sphingomonas polyaromaticivorans was previously carried out in cloud point system (CPS). In this study, we explored the possibility of further increasing the efficiency of the culture by repeatedly reusing cells and the system for biodegradation. Three different recycling strategies were adopted. In reuse of cells plus CPS, cells were reused for 3 times while maintaining high degradation rates (> 90%). Thereafter, the accumulation of metabolites in the dilute phase resulted in a decrease in cell viability. This inhibition was avoided in recycling the cells plus coacervate phase by replacing the dilute phase with fresh Medium. However, due to the slow adaptation of the cells to the new degradation environment and the reduction in the volume of the coacervate phase, the cells were only reused twice and their activity decreased. However, the same long degradation cycle (5 days) as the reuse of cells plus coacervate phase reduced the overall degradation efficiency of phenanthrene. Finally, a combined strategy of 3 times of cells plus CPS reuse and individual cells reuse once was employed and run for two cycles. 3 rounds of reuse of cells plus CPS improved cells utilization and phenanthrene degradation efficiency. Then, the subsequent round of reuse of cells alone relieved the effect of increasing metabolites on cell viability. This study provides a potential application for reusing cells to continuously degrade phenanthrene in soil and water in CPS. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13568-019-0736-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.