Introduction: Biomass carriers are widely used in various systems, e.g. to increase capability or efficiency. They are also used for biomass monitoring because proper sampling is crucial factor in understanding/controlling ongoing processes. Material features particularly determine the specific use of carriers. As nanomaterials exhibit very specific properties differing from bulk materials, they represent promising option for carrier’s preparation. Main goal was, therefore, to develop new nanofiber biomass carriers which will be applicable in various systems: biomass monitoring, storage following biomass lyophilization and biofiltration of contaminated air.
Material and methods: Carriers were made of supporting thread coated by polyurethane nanofibers in various shapes and with different surface density. As blank, carriers without nanofibers were tested. Carriers were long-termly evaluated under laboratory conditions as well as at contaminated site (BTEX, chlorinated ethenes). To examine their applicability, particularly molecular-genetic methods as real-time PCR (16S rDNA and specific genes) were employed. Amplification of the region V4 of eubacterial 16S rRNA gene was performed with barcode primers 515F (5´–TGCCAGCMGCNGCGG–3´) and 802R (5´–TACNVGGGTATCTAATCC–3´) during NGS analysis.
Results: Long-term monitoring of carriers at contaminated sites showed fast colonization by autochthonous microorganisms. Nanofiber carries exhibited faster and more compact biofilm structure compared to ones without nanofibers. Biggest differences in microbial community were mainly in quantity of detected families than in composition of autochthonous microorganisms. As expected, families able to easily form biofilm were more common on carriers. Shape of carriers impacted the composition of present microorganisms only slightly. Moreover, more than one year lasting exposition at actual sites did not affected structure of nanofiber layers as evaluated through SEM. Results of lyophilization indicated that developed carries did not influence microorganisms, therefore, they can be used for storage. Carriers used in biofilter showed fast colonization and stable biomass growth even when feeding by mixture of air and toluene. Achieved results, thus, proved applicability of developed nanofiber carriers. Additionally, developed carriers are cheap and very easy to use without any samples preparation prior to analysis.
Acknowledgment: Project “Microbial colonization of the fiber surface for analytical and diagnostic practice and technical applications” (No. TA04021210) provided by TAČR CZ is gratefully acknowledged.
