Anaerobic degradation of p-coumaric acid and pre-ozonated synthetic water containing this compound

摘要

Chemical treatment previous to biological treatment of p-coumaric acid may represent a strategy in order to improve its biodegradability.In this work,anaerobic biodegradation of synthetic waters containing this compound and pre-oxidized waters by ozonation was studied.The critical and optimum retention times for the reactor fed with p-coumaric acid were 15.9 and 20 days,respectively.Under the optimal operational conditions removal percentage ranged from 85 to 90%.The bioreactor for ozonated p-coumaric acid was operated at a constant hydraulic retention time(HRT)of 25 days,since lower HRT caused its destabilization and during period of more stability the percentage of removal varied between 71 and 84%.Thus,the use of the ozonation as chemical pre-treatment did not enhance biological degradation of p-coumaric acid.On the other hand,microorganisms able to use p-coumaric acid(or its major intermediates produced from the ozonation treatment),were isolated at maximum tolerated concentrations of these compounds.Since the ozonation as chemical pre-treatment did not improve p-coumaric acid biodegradation,the enrichment of these isolated strains could be the most adequate strategy to enhance the biological degradation of p-coumaric acid.