ABSTRACT
Paecilomyces lilacinus consumed toluene as the sole carbon source in a gas-phase biofilter obtaining an average elimination capacity of 50 g m−3 h−1 and a removal efficiency of 53%. From the mycelia produced in the biofilter, a hydrophobin (PLHYD) of 10.6 ± 0.3 kDa was purified by electrobubbling, and identified by peptide mass fingerprinting. The yield was 1.1 mg PLHYD g biomass−1. PLHYD production was also evaluated when grown in liquid (SmF) and solid-state fermentations (SSF) with n-hexadecane (HXD). The yield in SSF-HXD, 0.8 mg PLHYD g biomass−1, was lower than the obtained in the toluene biofilters but in SmF-HXD the PLHYD was not detected. The respiratory activity in SmF-HXD (Vmax 1.16 g CO2 m
−3 h−1) was two times higher than the SSF-HXD (Vmax 0.57 g CO2 m
−3 h−1). The PLHYD showed surface activity to modify the hydrophobicity of Teflon from 130.1 (±2)° to 57.0 (±5)° and tolerated hot SDS washing.
