KIRTY SHARMA*, PRAVEEN SHARMA AND PRITAM SANGWAN
Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety, Defence Research & Development Organization, New Delhi-110 054, India
*(e-mail : kirty.krt@gmail.com; ps.enbt@gmail.com; Mobile : 96435 94351)
(Received: January 01, 2023; Accepted: February 13, 2023)
ABSTRACT
Biodegradation of Octogen (HMX) is a better as well as environment-friendly technique to reduce its adverse effects on the environment. Therefore, optimization of parameters of HMX degradation using a consortium of bacterial isolates derived from an explosive polluted area was conducted with the help of Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The study was carried out to reveal the relationship between dependent and independent variables during HMX degradation. Independent variables included the inoculum size, initial concentration of HMX and time period of sampling during the experimentation, and dependent variables included percentage reduction of HMX, optical density and nitrite released. All dependent and independent variables were analyzed employing Box-Behnken design of RSM. Results revealed that an initial concentration of 4 ppm HMX, time period of eight days and inoculation size of 4 ml was optimal for 82% removal of HMX. A high regression coefficient of 0.99 with a statistically significant fitted into the quadratic regression model for HMX reduction percentage was illustrated by the statistical evaluation employing analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Key words : Biodegradation, consortium, pollution, Box-Behnken design, HMX