International Journal of Waste Resources

Enhanced removal of BTEX/TCE/cis-DCE mixture using waste scrap tires immobilized with indigenous Pseudomonas sp.

Renata Alves de Toledo1, Qihong Lu1, Fei Xie1, Junhui Li1,2 and Hojae Shim1

: Int J Waste Resources

Abstract:

The simultaneous aerobic removal of a mixture of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, o,m,p-xylene), cisdichloroethylene (cis-DCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) from the artificially contaminated water using an indigenous bacterial isolate identified as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida immobilized on waste scrap tires was investigated. Suspended and immobilized conditions were compared for the enhanced removal of these volatile organic compounds. For the immobilized system, toluene, benzene and ethylbenzene were completely removed while the highest removal efficiencies of 99.0�0.1%, 96.8�0.3%, 73.6�2.5%, and 61.6�0.9% were obtained for o-xylene,m,p-xylene, TCE and cis-DCE respectively. The sorption kinetics of contaminants toward tire surface was also evaluated and the sorption capacity generally followed the order of toluene> benzene> m,p-xylene> o-xylene> ethylbenzene> TCE> cis- DCE. Scrap tires showed a good capability for the simultaneous sorption and bioremoval of BTEX/cis-DCE/TCE mixture implying a promising waste material for the removal of contaminants mixture from industrial wastewater or contaminated groundwater.

Biography :

Renata Alves de Toledo completed her PhD degree in Analytical Chemistry from University of Sao Paulo (IQSC- USP, Brazil) in 2006. She worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Brazilian Organization for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA, Sao Carlos, Brazil) until 2008. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral fellow in environmental area at University of Macau, Faculty of Science and Technology. She has been involved in research projects on bioremediation of volatile organic compounds and on biodiesel production from yeast and microalga while treating food industrial wastewater.