Solid-Liquid Partitioning Bioreactors Applied to the Removal of Mixtures of Phenolic Compounds

摘要

In this paper we report the results of an investigation on the performance ofrnconventional and two phase partitioning bioreactors (TPPBs) operating in sequencingrnbatch mode applied to the biodegradation of a binary mixture of 2 substituted phenols,rn2,4-dimethylphenol and 4-nitrophenol. The TPPB was operated with the DuPontrnpolymer Hytrel 8206 as the partitioning phase, which was demonstrated to be effectivernin the uptake and release of a variety of phenolic compounds.rnPartition tests were performed on both compounds, and partition coefficients of 201 andrn143 were obtained in distilled water for 2,4-dimethylphenol and 4-nitrophenol,rnrespectively. Parallel kinetic tests were carried out in conventional and TPPBrnbioreactors under the same operating conditions. The TPPB results showed a reductionrnin the aqueous phase concentration for both substrates to sub-inhibitory levels in all therntests, and the effect was more evident for 2,4–dimethylphenol as expected by thernpartition coefficient values. Moreover, the presence of the polymer has a marked effectrnon the process kinetics that are significantly increased for both substrates in comparisonrnto the values of the conventional reactor.