Biodegradation

Biodegradation is the biochemical process of the decomposition and mineralization of organic compounds that occurs, when organisms like bacteria, fungi, protozoa and other organisms use an organic substance as a source of carbon. It is a key phenomenon among environmental processes with the aim to assess a persistence  of organic substances.

Through this biologically natural process, hazardous toxic contaminants are transformed into less toxic or non-toxic substances, resp. a change appears from complex substances into simpler ones before returning to the environment.... Read more...

A classification of biodegradability made by the OECD describing the degradation of an organic substance under aerobic conditions to carbon dioxide (CO₂), water (H₂O), and minerals by aerobic bacteria as determined by the measured change of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), or CO₂ evolution over time. A passing substance has to reach either a 60% BOD or theoretical CO2 evolution, or 70% decrease in DOC, depending on test method, all of which use a 10 - day window within a maximum 28-day test period for a successful determination. Readily biodegradable is defined as well as the ability of a product to biodegrade quickly and completely.

The following table shows the different Biodegradation Tests according OECD 301 which are applied in dependence of the substance properties.

Inherent biodegradability refers to tests with a longer exposure of a test substance to microorganisms. Using favourable conditions, the tests of inherent biodegradability have been designed to assess whether the chemical has any potential for biodegradation under aerobic conditions. Inherently biodegradable is defined as the characteristic of a product to be consumed by naturally occurring organisms in nature over an indefinite period of time (> 20% but < 60% as measured by ready biodegradability testing). 

InterBiotox offers also special biodegradation studies in anaerobic conditions simulating the conditions similar to an anaerobic digester. The other biodegradation studies simulates the biotic degradation of plastic materials in an aqueous medium.