Toluene / o-xylene monooxyenase (ToMO) from Pseudomonas sp. OX1 is a multimeric metalloenzyme enzyme that efficiently catalyzes the hydroxylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with high specificity. Though included in a larger group of conserved bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases (BMMs) studied as potential biocatalysts for industrial hydrocarbon chemistry, the substrate specificity and oxygenated intermediates of ToMO differ greatly from its well-characterized, alkane-hydroxylating analog sMMO. Despite a shared global topology and near identical active sites, sMMO can cleave inert C-H bonds in alkanes while ToMO cannot - two seemingly similar structures give rise to vastly different chemistries. This work seeks to determine a structural basis for this difference by mutational analysis of residues thought to conformationally constrain the active site in ToMO, with the goal of replicating the terminal alkane hydroxylating activity of sMMO. To this end, a library of potential alkane-hydroxylating mutants was generated and kinetically characterized, revealing a range of novel behaviors including significant reaction rate enhancements. In combination with low-level computational modeling to quantify the bulk and local rigidity of both sMMOH and ToMOH, we propose a broader strategy for BMM scaffolds to achieve a variety of specific and efficient hydrocarbon chemistries.

abstract: This study reports on benzene and toluene biodegradation under different dissolved oxygen conditions, and the goal of this study is to evaluate and model their removal. Benzene and toluene were tested for obligate anaerobic degradation in batch reactors with sulfate as the electron acceptor. A group of sulfate-reducing bacteria capable of toluene degradation was enriched after 252 days of incubation. Those cultures, originated from anaerobic digester, were able to degrade toluene coupled to sulfate reduction with benzene coexistence, while they were not able to utilize benzene. Methanogens also were present, although their contribution to toluene biodegradation was not defined. Aerobic biodegradation of benzene and toluene by Pseudomonas putida F1 occurred, and biomass production lagged behind substrate loss and continued after complete substrate removal. This pattern suggests that biodegradation of intermediates, rather than direct benzene and toluene transformation, caused bacterial growth. Supporting this explanation is that the calculated biomass growth from a two-step model basically fit the experimental biomass results during benzene and toluene degradation with depleted dissolved oxygen. Catechol was tested for anaerobic biodegradation in batch experiments and in a column study. Sulfate- and nitrate-reducing bacteria enriched from a wastewater treatment plant hardly degraded catechol within 20 days. However, an inoculum from a contaminated site was able to remove 90% of the initial 16.5 mg/L catechol, and Chemical Oxygen Demand was oxidized in parallel. Catechol biodegradation was inhibited when nitrite accumulated, presumably by a toxic catechol-nitrite complex. The membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) offers the potential for biodegrading benzene in a linked aerobic and anaerobic pathway by controlling the O2 delivery. At an average benzene surface loading of 1.3 g/m2-day and an average hydraulic retention time of 2.2 day, an MBfR supplied with pure O2 successfully achieved 99% benzene removal at steady state. A lower oxygen partial pressure led to decreased benzene removal, and nitrate removal increased, indicating multiple mechanisms, including oxygenation and nitrate reduction, were involved in the system being responsible for benzene removal. Microbial community analysis indicated that Comamonadaceae, a known aerobic benzene-degrader and denitrifier, dominated the biofilm at the end of operation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil and Environmental Engineering 2015

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Orientadores: Meuris Gurgel Carlos da Silva, Onelia Aparecida Andreo dos Santos / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T22:59:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bedin_Sidmara_M.pdf: 4205652 bytes, checksum: d622e46268c9acb2352410201461233c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Diariamente, uma grande quantidade de fluxos de água sofre contaminação por compostos orgânicos como, por exemplo, o benzeno, tolueno e xileno (BTX), os quais são compostos tóxicos e nocivos ao meio ambiente e aos seres humanos. Sendo assim, o estudo de técnicas de remoção e tratamento desses poluentes vem se tornando tema de muitas pesquisas. A adsorção tem se mostrado uma técnica bastante eficiente, pois atende aos limites da legislação, apresenta baixo consumo energético e custo de processo, ainda mais quando se faz uso de um adsorvente alternativo, como é o caso da argila organofílica. Nesse trabalho foi proposto avaliar a argila esmectítica sódica nacional Fluidgel, na forma natural e organofilizada, como materiais adsorventes alternativos na remoção dos compostos orgânicos BTX de soluções aquosas, em ensaios em sistema batelada e em sistema dinâmico. A argila organofílica foi preparada a partir da argila comercial e do sal quaternário de amônia HDTMA e se verificou a capacidade de troca catiônicas dos adsorventes. Foram realizadas técnicas de caracterização com a finalidade de determinar a área superficial do material, estrutura de poros, estrutura cristalina, morfologia de superfície, composição química, perda de massa e água e identificação de grupos funcionais de superfície. Testes preliminares comprovaram o caráter hidrofóbico da argila organofílica e sua afinidade por compostos orgânicos, bem como o caráter hidrofílico da argila comercial. Ensaios cinéticos de pH mostraram que o mesmo não afeta de maneira significativa o processo de adsorção. Os ensaios cinéticos de adsorção realizados em sistema batelada alcançaram o equilíbrio em 3h e apresentaram porcentagens de remoção de poluente superiores a 90%, com concentração inicial de 1,09 mmol/L. Os modelos cinéticos analisados foram o de pseudoprimeira ordem, pseudossegunda ordem e o de difusão intrapartícula, sendo que o modelo de pseudossegunda ordem melhor descreveu os dados experimentais. Para as isotermas de equilíbrios, testou-se as temperaturas de 35, 25 e 15 oC, sendo a maior capacidade de remoção com a maior temperatura, indicando que a adsorção nesse caso é de natureza endotérmica. Os modelos de isotermas avaliados foram Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, DSL, MSAM e D-R, porém apenas o modelo de D-R descreveu de maneira satisfatória os dados experimentais. Pela análise dos parâmetros termodinâmicos, verificou-se que o processo de adsorção em estudo é espontâneo, favorecido a altas temperaturas e que possivelmente ocorre fisissorção. Devido à alta volatilidade dos compostos BTX, foi feita uma adaptação na adsorção em sistema dinâmico através de coluna de leito fixo e se realizou um ensaio cinético em leito de adsorção. A ordem de remoção dos compostos orgânicos, para ambas as argilas, foi xileno > tolueno > benzeno / Abstract: Daily a large amount of water flows suffers contamination by organic compounds as, for example, benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX), which are toxic compounds and harmful to the environment and to humans. Thus, the study of techniques for removal and treatment of these pollutants has become the subject of much research. The adsorption has proven to be a very effective technique because it meets the limits of the law, has low energy consumption and process cost, further when it makes use of an alternative adsorbent, as is the case with organoclay. In this study, it was proposed evaluate the national sodium smectite clay Fluidgel , in the natural and organophilizated form, as an alternative adsorbent material to the removal of organic compounds BTX from aqueous solutions in batch and dynamic system essays. The organoclay was prepared from the commercial clay and the quaternary ammonium salt HDTMA and it was verified the cationic exchange capacity of the adsorbents. Were performed characterization techniques in order to determine the surface area of the material, pore structure, crystal structure, surface morphology, chemical composition, mass and water loss and identification of surface functional groups. Preliminary tests confirmed the hydrophobic character of the organoclay and their affinity for organic compounds and the hydrophilic character of the commercial clay. pH kinetic experiments showed that the same does not affect significantly the adsorption process. Kinetic assays of adsorption performed in batch system reached equilibrium in 3 hours and showed pollutant removal percentages greater than 90%, with an initial concentration of 1.09 mmol/L. The kinetic models analyzed were the pseudo first order, pseudo second order and the intraparticle diffusion, being that the pseudo second order model best described the experimental data. For the equilibrium isotherm, was tested at temperatures of 35, 25 and 15 °C, being the largest removal capacity with the greatest temperature, indicating that the adsorption of this case is endothermic in nature. The isotherm models evaluated were Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, DSL, MSAM and D-R, but only the D-R model described satisfactorily the experimental data. By the analysis of the thermodynamic parameters, it was found that the adsorption in study is spontaneous and favorable at high temperatures and that possibly occurs physisorption. Due to the high volatility of BTX compounds, it was made an adaptation to dynamic adsorption system through fixed bed column and a kinetic assay was carried out in adsorption bed. The order of removal of organic compounds for both clays was xylene > toluene > benzene / Mestrado / Engenharia Química / Mestra em Engenharia Química

This work is focused on verification of p-Nitrotoluenu toxicity and compounds resulting from the aerobic transformation, and methyl group oxidation and reduction of nitro. Some of these products are not commercially available and had to be made soon. Toxicity of the substances was determined by toxicity tests. Were tested root growth inhibition Sinapis alba, which resulted in an inhibitory concentration IC50; test inhibition duckweed Lemna minor , which was also the determination of IC50 inhibitory concentration, and acute toxicity test Artemia salina, which was observed in mortality and immobility organisms and the test result was an efficient concentration EC50 value. Results of tests are compared in the conclusion of the work and is made evaluation of the toxicity of individual substances.

Diisocyanates are very reactive low molecular weight chemicals that are widely used in the manufacture of polyurethane products. Diisocyanate exposure is one of the most commonly reported causes of occupational asthma. Although diisocyanates have been identified as causative agents of respiratory diseases, the specific mechanisms by which these diseases occur remain largely unknown. Tandem mass spectrometry was used to unambiguously identify the binding site of isocyanates within four model peptides (Leu-enkephalin (Leu-enk, YGGFL), Angiotensin I (DRVYIHPFHL), Substance P-amide (RPKPQQFFGLM-NH2), and Fibronectin-adhesion promoting peptide (FAPP, WQPPRARI)). In each case, isocyanates were observed to react to the N-terminus of the peptide. No evidence of side chain/isocyanate adduct formation exclusive of the N-terminus was observed. However, significant intra-molecular diisocyanate crosslinking between the N-terminal amine and a side chain amine group was observed for arginine, when located within two residues of the N-terminus. Addition of multiple isocyanates to the peptide occurs via polymerization at the N-terminus, rather than addition of multiple isocyanate molecules to varied residues within the peptide. Toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with potential use in immunoassays for exposure and biomarker assessments were produced. A total of 59 unique mAbs were produced (29 IgG1, 14 IgG2a, 4 IgG2b, 2 IgG3 and 10 IgM) against 2,4 and 2,6 TDI bound protein. The reactivities of these mAbs were characterized by a solid phase indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Dot ELISA and Western immunoblot against various monoisocyanate, diisocyanate and dithioisocyanate protein conjugates. A subset of the mAbs were specific for 2,4 or 2,6 TDI-conjugated proteins only while others reacted to multiple dNCO conjugates including methylene diphenyl diisocyanate- and hexamethelene diisocyanate- human serum albumin . Western blot analyses demonstrated that some TDI conjugates form inter- and intra-molecular links resulting in multimers and a change in the electrophoretic mobility of the conjugate. In general, 2,4/2,6 TDI reactive mAbs displayed (1) stronger recognition of monoisocyanate haptenated proteins when the isocyanate was in the ortho position relative to the tolyl group, and were able to discriminate between (2) isocyanate and isothiocyanate conjugates (i.e. between the urea and thiourea linkage); and (3) between aromatic and aliphatic diisocyanates. The mAbs produced were not carrier protein specific with estimated affinity constants toward toluene diisocyanate conjugated human serum albumin ranging from 2.21 x 107 to 1.07 x 1010 M-1 for IgG mAbs. Studies using TDI vapor exposed lung and epithelial cell lines suggest potential utility of these mAbs for both research and biomonitoring of isocyanate exposure.

Laminar flat flame combustion has been studied with molecular-beam mass-spectrometry (MBMS) for a fuel-rich cyclohexane (Ф = 2.003) flame, a fuel-lean toluene (Ф = 0.895), and a fuel-rich toluene (Ф = 1.497) flame. Different hydrocarbon species in these flames were identified, and their mole fraction profiles were measured. The information can be used to propose reaction mechanisms for the different hydrocarbon flames. One MBMS apparatus located at Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was used to identify and measure the mole-fraction profiles of different species in these flames. The MBMS apparatus located at University of Massachusetts Amherst was used to measure the temperature profile of the cyclohexane flame. The temperature profile of two different fuel-rich toluene flames (Ф= 2.02 , Ф = 3.94) and a fuel-lean (Ф=0.452) methane flame were also measured with the UMass apparatus.

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