Microbial degradation of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone in surface water and bacteria responsible for the process.

Due to widespread utilization in many industrial spheres and agrochemicals, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is a potential contaminant of different surface water ecosystems. Hence, investigation was made into its aerobic microbial degradability in samples of water from a river, wetland area and spring. The results showed that the compound was degradable in all water types, and that the fastest NMP removal occurred in 4 days in river water, while in the wetland and spring samples the process was relatively slow, requiring several months to complete. Key bacterial degraders were successfully isolated in all cases, and their identification proved that pseudomonads played a major role in NMP degradation in river water, while the genera Rhodococcus and Patulibacter fulfilled a similar task in the wetland sample. Regarding spring water, degrading members of the Mesorhizobium and Rhizobium genera were found.

N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-degrading bacteria from activated sludge.

N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is a widely used solvent for many organic compounds and a component found in a vast array of chemical preparations. For this research paper, NMP degrading bacteria were isolated from two samples of activated sludge. They pertained to both Gram-negative and Gram-positive members, and belong to the Pseudomonas, Paracoccus, Acinetobacter and Rhodococcus genera. All the strains utilized 300 mg/L of NMP as the only source of carbon, energy and nitrogen over several days, and they were shown to additionally be able to degrade N-acetylphenylalanine (NAP). The growth of all the isolated strains was recorded at different NMP concentrations, to a maximum of 20 g/L.