Comments on “Influence of thermally modified palygorskite on the viability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria” by B. Biswas, B. Sarkar, and R. Naidy Applied Clay Science 134 (2016) 153–160, DOI 10.1016/j.clay.2016.07.003

Abstract

Biswas et al. (2016) have recently reported “Influence of thermally modified palygorskite on the viability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria”. This topic is very interesting because is related to a clay-mediated bioremediation technology and the authors investigated the compatibility of heat treated palygorskite products (100–900 °C) with a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -degrading soil bacterium Burkholderia sartisoli. Nevertheless, the discussion of the results shows a lack of knowledge of the structure and thermal behaviour of palygorskite, and consequently, the conclusions reached are not correct.