Economic comparison of enzymatic reactors and advanced oxidation processes applied to the degradation of phenol as a model compound

Abstract

Some micropollutants present in wastewaters are barely removed in sewage treatment plants. In many cases a post-treatment process based on separation and/or oxidation has to be applied. The aim of this study was the technical and economic comparison of enzymatic technologies with other advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the degradation of phenol. Batch and continuous enzymatic reactors, using free and immobilized manganese peroxidase (MnP, EC 1.11.1.13), were considered. Continuous degradation of phenol in an enzymatic membrane reactor was shown to be the fastest process and degradation in a continuous reactor with immobilized enzyme involved the lowest consumption of enzyme. However, the immobilization process increased the enzyme cost 100-fold. A continuous enzymatic membrane reactor gave high degradation efficiency and may be a viable technology for phenol removal when compared with other AOPs from both technical and economic points of view.

Keywords::

• Enzymatic degradation
• phenol
• manganese peroxidase
• enzymatic immobilization
• enzymatic membrane reactor
• economical comparison

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (CTQ2010-20258). Support given to C. López from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (AP2000-1712) is also greatly appreciated.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.