Biodegradation of Xenobiotics in a fixed bed reactor

Abstract

AbstractThe specific example of an at‐source biological wastewater treatment has been elaborated and developed. A two‐phase fixed‐bed bioreactor system was tested for its efficiency using phenol as a test substance and then, the degradation of sodium anthraquinone‐2‐sulfonate (SAS) was studied and performed.The continuous aerobic degradation of phenol or SAS as the sole source of carbon was investigated. For SAS degradation with an immobilized mixed bacterial culture, industrial activated sludge was used as inoculum, while for phenol a domestic activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and activated Actizym‐sludge prepared with Actizym® powder were applied. In our laboratory fixed bed reactor system the adapted mixed culture was able to degrade up to 0.17 g L−1 h−1 of SAS and 0.28 g L−1 h−1 of phenol at dilution rates of 0.149 h−1 and 0.059 h−1, respectively. The removal efficiency of our two‐phase continuous bioreactor system was about 99% of primary and 90% of ultimate SAS degradation.In the adapted bacterial culture degrading SAS, pure bacterial strains were isolated and identified; three were gram negative and six were gram positive.