THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED TREATMENT PROCESS TO REMOVE ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING COMPOUNDS FROM WASTEWATER USING PHANEROCHAETE CHRYSOSPORIUM

Open Access
- Author:
- Henry, Erin
- Graduate Program:
- Environmental Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 29, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Rachel Alice Brennan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Rachel Alice Brennan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- endocrine disrupting compounds
wastewater
white rot fungi
phanerochaete chrysosporium
atrazine
pH
glucose
sterile
non-sterile
batch study - Abstract:
- Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) have entered our wastewater in many forms including pesticides and prescription medications. Because typical wastewater treatment processes are not designed to remove EDCs, some compounds remain in the effluent. Upon discharge, EDCs are released into the environment, where they can harm aquatic species or reenter potable water supplies. One potential solution to this problem involves the use of the white-rot fungus (WRF), Phanerochaete chrysosporium. P. chrysosporium produces lignin-degrading extracellular enzymes, which have the capacity to biodegrade a variety of organic pollutants. Although there have been numerous experiments exploring the degradation capacity of WRF, there have not been adequate studies involving wastewater applications. This bench-scale study investigated conditions for fungal growth and extracellular enzyme activity in wastewater for eventual large-scale applications. Degradation of an EDC, atrazine, by P. chrysosporium was also evaluated. Three batch experiments were carried out to evaluate the growth and extracellular enzyme activity of immobilized P. chrysosporium. The effects of sterile and non-sterile conditions, an organic carbon amendment, pH, wastewater effluent treatment, and three packing (immobilization) materials on P. chrysosporium were evaluated. Additionally, wastewater was spiked with atrazine, and degradation was monitored. In anticipation of scale-up, continuous-flow column reactors were designed and built; however, experimental data was not obtained from these columns. The batch experiments indicated that 1) enzyme activity can be produced within a pH range of 3.4 – 5.1; 2) supplemental organic carbon positively affected growth, but did not affect enzyme activity; 3) fluctuations in pH negatively affected enzyme activity; 4) enzyme activity was produced in non-sterile wastewater; and 5) removal of atrazine by fungal treatments was not significantly different from controls; however, one fungal treatment may have started to degrade atrazine via enzymatic biocatalysis by the end of the experiment.