Novel method for determining pyrene biodegradation using synchronous fluorimetry

To study the biodegradation rate of pyrene dissolved in liquid medium supplemented with mineral salts, a synchronous fluorimetry (SF) method was established. The limit of detection for pyrene dissolved in mineral salts medium (MSM) was determined as 0.19 ng/ml with a relative standard deviation of less than 1.3% (n = 9). The pyrene degrading rates of four bacterial strains were investigated using this method under the same experimental conditions. The degradation rates of the three active strains ranged from 76% to 87% after a 14-h incubation. The results were confirmed by the gas chromatography with a flame ionized detector (GC/FID) method. This implies that pyrene degradation can be directly monitored by the SF method without the solvent extraction of samples. The advantages of SF are that it is less laborious, faster, and less expensive than the GC/FlD determination method with solvent extraction. The SF method provides a new tool for studying the degradation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the natural environment and under experimental conditions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.