Nicotine Decontamination of Tobacco Agro-Industrial Waste and Its Degradation by Micro-Organisms

Abstract

A hazardous solid waste is accumulated during the processing of tobacco for the manufacture of cigarettes. Its main characteristics are the high nicotine content as the only toxic compound, and the powdery structure that does not permit recycling. A biotechnological process is proposed to detoxify these powdery tobacco residues. The toxic compound, nicotine, is transferred from the solid phase to an aqueous solution through efficient percolation. Nicotinophilic micro-organisms were screened to evaluate their ability to degrade nicotine directly in the extracted liquid. The biodegradation process was followed by nicotine detection and CO ₂ production, while other parameters were determined to assess the correct disposal of the final products. Among three strains used, Pseudomonas putida had the best nicotine degradation performance in this complex medium. © 1997 ISWA