A bacterium capable of utilizing polyethylene glycol of low molecular weight (less than 300) was isolated from soil and identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa by biologic characteristics (named P. aeruginosa PEG‐K). The effect of ozone degradation on the utilization of polyethylene glycol of high molecular weight by the bacterium was studied on the basis of the measurement of oxygen uptake by Warburg manometer and of bacterial growth. The polyethylene glycol, which can never be utilized at all because of high molecular weight, became utilizable by the bacterium as a result of ozonization, while the formaldehyde produced by the ozonization inhibited the utilization of the ozonized polyethylene glycol by the same bacterium. However, such inhibition disappeared by treating the aldehyde with hydrogen peroxide. From the results of gas chromatography and measurement of chemical oxygen demand, P. aeruginosa PEG‐K was found to utilize ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, and triethylene glycol, which were produced by the ozonization.
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Suzuki et al. (1976) studied this question.
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