Ibuprofen-degrading consortium

Ibuprofen is a widely used drug of environmental concern as emerging contaminant. High amounts of ibuprofen and its metabolites reach wastewater treatment plants, where their elimination is incomplete. Therefore, this contaminant is mainly introduced from wastewater discharge and sewage sludge used as fertilizer causing environmental pollution. The main aim of this study is to obtain a bacterial consortium from activated slurry to evaluate the efficiency of ibuprofen degradation both in solution and in sewage sludge and to identify the main bacterial groups potentially involved in ibuprofen biodegradation. As a result, the C7 consortium enriched in ibuprofen-degrading bacterial species was obtained. Importantly, this consortium was able to remove high and low concentrations of ibuprofen from aqueous solutions and no accumulation of toxic metabolites occured. Furthermore, ibuprofen in sewage sludge was removed in 16 days, with a 5-fold increase in degradation rate after bioaugmentation with the C7 consortium. Therefore, the application of the C7 consortium before the discharge of wastewater and sewage sludge could prevent environmental contamination by avoiding the entry of ibuprofen into water and soil.