Heger Sebastian, Bluhm Kerstin, Brendt Julia, Mayer Philipp, Anders Nico, Schäffer Andreas, Seiler Thomas-Benjamin, Hollert Henner
RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Analysis, Aachen, Germany.
Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2016 Sep 29;11(9):e0163862. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163862. eCollection 2016.
Only few information on the potential toxic effectiveness of biofuels are available. Due to increasing worldwide demand for energy and fuels during the past decades, biofuels are considered as a promising alternative for fossil fuels in the transport sector. Hence, more information on their hazard potentials are required to understand the toxicological impact of biofuels on the environment. In the German Cluster of Excellence "Tailor-made Fuels from Biomass" design processes for economical, sustainable and environmentally friendly biofuels are investigated. In an unique and interdisciplinary approach, ecotoxicological methods are applied to gain information on potential adverse environmental effects of biofuels at an early phase of their development. In the present study, three potential biofuels, ethyl levulinate, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and 2-methylfuran were tested. Furthermore, we investigated a fossil gasoline fuel, a fossil diesel fuel and an established biodiesel. Two in vitro bioassays, one for assessing cytotoxicity and one for aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonism, so called dioxin-like activity, as measured by Ethoxyresorufin-O-Deethylase, were applied using the permanent fish liver cell line RTL-W1 (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The special properties of these fuel samples required modifications of the test design. Points that had to be addressed were high substance volatility, material compatibility and low solubility. For testing of gasoline, diesel and biodiesel, water accommodated fractions and a passive dosing approach were tested to address the high hydrophobicity and low solubility of these complex mixtures. Further work has to focus on an improvement of the chemical analyses of the fuel samples to allow a better comparison of any effects of fossil fuels and biofuels.
关于生物燃料潜在毒性作用的信息非常有限。在过去几十年里，由于全球对能源和燃料的需求不断增加，生物燃料被视为交通运输领域化石燃料的一种有前景的替代品。因此，需要更多关于其潜在危害的信息，以了解生物燃料对环境的毒理学影响。在德国“生物质定制燃料”卓越集群中，正在研究经济、可持续且环境友好的生物燃料的设计过程。采用独特的跨学科方法，应用生态毒理学方法在生物燃料开发的早期阶段获取其对环境潜在不利影响的信息。在本研究中，测试了三种潜在生物燃料，即乙酰丙酸乙酯、2-甲基四氢呋喃和2-甲基呋喃。此外，我们还研究了一种化石汽油燃料、一种化石柴油燃料和一种成熟的生物柴油。使用永久性鱼肝细胞系RTL-W1（虹鳟）进行了两种体外生物测定，一种用于评估细胞毒性，另一种用于评估芳烃受体激动作用，即通过乙氧基异吩唑酮-O-脱乙基酶测量的所谓二噁英样活性。这些燃料样品的特殊性质需要对测试设计进行修改。需要解决的问题包括高物质挥发性、材料兼容性和低溶解度。对于汽油、柴油和生物柴油的测试，测试了水相组分和被动给药方法，以解决这些复杂混合物的高疏水性和低溶解度问题。进一步的工作必须集中在改进燃料样品的化学分析上，以便更好地比较化石燃料和生物燃料的任何影响。
