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Degradation and Detoxification of Chlorophenols in Continuous‐Flow Fixed‐Bed Aerobic Reactors
Author(s) -
Gallego Alfredo,
Gemini Virginia L.,
Rossi Susana L.,
Gómez Carlos E.,
Rossini Gustavo D. Bulus,
Korol Sonia E.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.201000340
Subject(s) - wastewater , chemistry , daphnia magna , biodegradation , chemical oxygen demand , detoxification (alternative medicine) , pulp and paper industry , chlorophenol , degradation (telecommunications) , microbial population biology , environmental chemistry , environmental remediation , chloride , continuous reactor , microbial consortium , microorganism , chromatography , environmental engineering , contamination , environmental science , bacteria , organic chemistry , ecology , biology , phenol , catalysis , alternative medicine , toxicity , pathology , computer science , engineering , genetics , telecommunications , medicine
An indigenous bacterial strain of Delftia sp. capable of degrading 2,4‐dicholorophenol and an indigenous bacterial community that degrades 2,4,6‐trichlorophenol (TCP) were employed to inoculate continuous down‐flow fixed‐bed reactors. Continuous‐reactors were constructed from PVC employing hollow PVC cylinders as support material. Synthetic wastewater was prepared by dissolving the corresponding chlorophenol in non‐sterile groundwater. Biodegradation was evaluated by spectrophotometry, chloride release, GC, and microbial growth. Detoxification was evaluated by using Daphnia magna as test organism. Delftia sp. was able to remove an average of 95.6% of DCP. Efficiency in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was of 88.9%. The indigenous bacterial community that degrades TCP reached an average efficiency of 96.5 and 91.6% in terms of compound and COD removal, respectively. In both cases stoichiometric removal of chloride and detoxification was achieved. When synthetic wastewater feed was cut off for 7 days, both reactors showed a fast recovery after inflow restarting, reaching average outlet concentration values within 36 h. The promising behavior of the microorganisms and the low cost of the reactors tested allow us to suggest their possible application to remediation processes.