Abstract:
Waste volatile compounds, such as butyric acid, generated from pit latrines may cause discomfort to pit latrine
users and they have undesirable impacts on sanitation promotion efforts and public health. The purpose of
this work was to isolate and identify highly efficient deodorant butyric acid bacteria and investigate their
feasibility of biologically removing butyric acid from enriched liquid medium under different pH conditions. The
determination of the ability of these bacterial strains on removal of butyric acid was at the concentration of
1000 mgL-1 in MSM. The experiment was designed in a batch reactor under aerobic condition by shaking in a
temperature controlled incubator at orbital shaking speed of 110 rpm and of 30 oC and initial pH was adjusted
to 7.0. The results showed that these bacterial strains were identified as Bacillus cereus, Lysinibacillus
fusiformis, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus methylotrophicus. The bacterial strains were capable of growth and
degrading butyric acid at a wide range of initial pH values but the optimal growth and butyric acid degradation
was achieved at neutral pH. Complete butyric acid degradation was achieved within 20-24 h. The bacterial
strains have proved to be potential candidates for the development of biodeodorization systems for pit latrines.
