RITE - KIYOSE No.2 LABORATORY in Obayashi Corporation

In the soil pollution, a wide area has been often polluted by low amount of chemical pollutants. Not a physical, chemical method but a bioremediation is suitable for the removal of such pollution. The purpose of this research is the development of the method of degrading recalcitrant chemical pollutants in the soil where the waste of edible mushroom cultivation are used as microbial source.

We examined the lignolytic peroxidase activity of waste of edible mushroom cultivation of six kinds of edible mushrooms, and found that high enzyme activity existed in the waste of cultivation. The fungi proliferated normally in the soil which contain 4000ppm of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and 80% of the polyaromatic hydrocarbons were degraded in four weeks. Suitable amount of air and water were necessary for degrading polyaromatic hydrocarbons by the fungi and degrading efficiency has increased by the solubilization of the chemical pollutants. The added fungi should be preferentially proliferated so that the bioremediation may succeed. For this purpose, it was effective to sterilize the soil beforehand.

The bioremediation which uses waste of edible mushroom cultivation can reduce the cost which requires for culture and we can easily confirm the safety of the microorganism. These features are extremely advantageous for a practical use.