Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry

Study on Role of Microorganisms in Depolymerization Processes of Xenobiotic Polymers

Abstract

Masaji Watanabe and Fusako Kawai

A microbial depolymerization process of polyethylene glycol is studied with modeling and simulation based on experimental results. Weight distributions before and after cultivation of microbial consortium E1 for two, four, and seven days were introduced into analysis. Inverse problems for a molecular factor and a time factor of a degradation rate were formulated, and those problems were solved numerically. An initial value problem was solved numerically for simulation of an exogenous type depolymerization process. The role of microorganisms in the depolymerization process was interpreted.