LAUSR

Abstract The supplementation of agricultural soils with dewatered sewage sludge represents a technical solution not only to the disposal of the large quantities of biosolids generated daily, but also a potential means of increasing soil fertility and productivity. However, the presence of organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in biosolids limits their application to agricultural soils. The application of Phanerochaete chrysosporium, its lignocelluloytic cell-free extract, a commercial preparation of the laccase enzyme for the enhanced removal of three PAHs (naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene) at two different concentrations (1 and 10 mg g−1 biosolids) from a biosolid sample was assessed in terms of both PAH degradation and their impact on the microbial community of the biosolids. The addition of P. chrysosporium biomass, a commercial laccase preparation, a P. chrysosporium cell-free extract at low PAH concentrations (1 mg g−1 biosolids) and high PAH concentrations (10 mg g−1 biosolids) resulted in a significant increase (P