The ultimate cartridge for environmental clean-up
(2013) Micropol & Ecohazard 2013 — Location: Zurich (16.June.2013)
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Agathos, Spiros N. 
- Abstract
- Scientific evidence of chemical pollution of surface waters has accumulated over the past decades. Presently, environmental legislations are driving forces towards the development of remediation technologies. To date, the physicochemical treatments (O3, activated carbon) coupled to conventional activated sludge systems are largely insufficient and water professionals (corporate and academic) are still looking for a feasible, economical and sustainable solution to eliminate cocktails of trace contaminants from wastewater before discharge in the environment. The laboratory of Bioengineering at the University of Louvain has performed research on an enzymatic technology to respond to the aquatic micropollutant issue in an integrated approach; from the industrial production of high redox potential laccase (EC 1.10.3.2), an enzyme able to oxidize various pollutants1, and the formulation of optimal biocatalysts2 (immobilized laccase), to the design and operation of a scalable water treatment process. Recently, the laboratory of Bioengineering decided to bridge the gap between academia and industry by setting up a spin-off which would commercialize the enzyme technology. The BIOCATRIDGE project (BIOCATalysis in cartRIDGE, Spin-off in Brussels 2011 program) prepares the technology transfer of biocatalysis-based environmental technology. Technically, the enzyme reactor was designed towards a modular biocatalytic cartridge able to continuously eliminate a mixture of micropollutants within a short hydraulic residence time. Figure 1. Time course of the lab-scale cartridge outlet concentrations of BPA, EE2, DF, NP, TCS, SMX and CBZ fed at 5 µM each in demineralized H20 (pH 5.3) at a constant flow for 7 h (hydraulic residence time, HRT = 57 s). Please refer to the text for details. The cartridge was operated in various conditions to gain information on its performance towards pollutant removal. Figure 1 illustrates a short reactor run with a cocktail of widespread micropollutants at 5 µM in water. Conversions of bisphenol A (BPA, plasticizer), nonylphenol (NP, detergent residue) and diclofenac (DF, anti-inflammatory) were above 95 %, and around 90 % for triclosan (TCS, biocide), while carbamazepine (CBZ, anticonvulsant) was recalcitrant to the biocatalytic treatment. 17-beta-ethinylestradiol (EE2, synthetic hormone) was not detected during the 7 h-reactor run. The steady-state concentration of sulfamethoxazole (SMX, antibiotic) was not reached during the exemplified run. All gathered information was used to understand, predict and benchmark the reactor performances with previously-reported reactors and to assess its potential towards industrial applications. 1Cabana, H., Jones, J.P. and S.N. Agathos (2007) Elimination of endocrine disrupting chemicals using white rot fungi and their lignin modifying enzymes: a review. Engineering in Life Science 7, 429-456. 2Demarche, P., Junghanns, C., Mazy, N. and S.N. Agathos (2012) Design-of-experiment strategy for the formulation of laccase biocatalysts and their application to degrade bisphenol A. New Biotechnology 30, 96-103.
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Citations
Demarche, P., Nair, R., Ardao Palacios, I., & Agathos, S. N. (2013). The ultimate cartridge for environmental clean-up. Micropol & Ecohazard 2013, Zurich. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/214837