Tailoring polymeric composite gel beads-encapsulated microorganism for efficient degradation of phenolic compounds

• Published in: Chinese journal of chemical engineering 2021-04, Vol.32 (4), p.301-306
• Main Authors: Liu, Xueping, Xue, Ping, Jia, Feng, Qiu, Dongya, Shi, Keren, Zhang, Weiwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biocatalysis; Degradation; Immobilization; Phenolic compounds; Polymeric composite; Reusability
• ISSN: 1004-9541; 2210-321X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2020.08.002

Phenol and its derivatives are highly toxic pollutants in industrial wastewater for the ecological environments, so there is essential attention to develop effective means of removing these harmful substances from water. In this work, the microorganism was immobilized into polymeric composite gel beads prepared by the effective recombination of natural abundant chitosan (CS) and industrial polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) for treating phenolic compounds. The degradation rate of 99.5% can be achieved to treat 100 mg·L−1 of phenol at 30 °C using the fresh resultant immobilized microorganism, where only 21.1% degradation rate was obtained by the free microorganism under the identical conditions. The recycling experiments of repeated 90 times to treat 100 mg·L‐1 of phenol displayed that the degradation rate of phenol was stable to 99% with the appearance of beads unchanged significantly, indicating the immobilized microorganism possessed excellent operating stability. Moreover, while the phenol derivatives of 100 mg·L−1 were treated catalytically including p-methylphenol, catechol, and o-aminophenol for 24 h by the immobilized microorganism, the degradation rates were all above 95%. The immobilized microorganism into PVA-CS polymeric composite with excellent operating stability and degradation activity would provide a feasible solution for treating phenolic compounds in water in industrial applications. [Display omitted]