Pretreatment of furfural industrial wastewater by Fenton, electro-Fenton and Fe(II)-activated peroxydisulfate processes: a comparative study

Nanostructural Analysis of Enzymatic and Non-enzymatic Brown Rot Fungal Deconstruction of the Lignocellulose Cell Wall†

Brown rot (BR) decay mechanisms employ carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) as well as a unique non-enzymatic chelator-mediated Fenton (CMF) chemistry to deconstruct lignocellulosic materials. Unlike white rot fungi, BR fungi lack peroxidases for lignin deconstruction, and also lack some endoglucanase/cellobiohydrolase activities. The role that the CMF mechanism plays in "opening up" the wood cell wall structure in advance of enzymatic action, and any interaction between CMF constituents and the selective CAZyme suite that BRs possess, is still unclear. Expression patterns for CMF redox metabolites and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO-AA9 family) genes showed that some LPMO isozymes were upregulated with genes associated with CMF at early stages of brown rot by Gloeophyllum trabeum. In the structural studies, wood decayed by the G. trabeum was compared to CMF-treated wood, or CMF-treated wood followed by treatment with either the early-upregulated LPMO or a commercial CAZyme cocktail. Structural modification of decayed/treated wood was characterized using small angle neutron scattering. CMF treatment produced neutron scattering patterns similar to that of the BR decay indicating that both systems enlarged the nanopore structure of wood cell walls to permit enzyme access. Enzymatic deconstruction of cellulose or lignin in raw wood samples was not achieved via CAZyme cocktail or LPMO enzyme action alone. CMF treatment resulted in depolymerization of crystalline cellulose as attack progressed from the outer regions of individual crystallites. Multiple pulses of CMF treatment on raw wood showed a progressive increase in the spacing between the cellulose elementary fibrils (EFs), indicating the CMF eroded the matrix outside the EF bundles, leading to less tightly packed EFs. Peracetic acid delignification treatment enhanced subsequent CMF treatment effects, and allowed both enzyme systems to further increase spacing of the EFs. Moreover, even after a single pulse of CMF treatment, both enzymes were apparently able to penetrate the cell wall to further increase EF spacing. The data suggest the potential for the early-upregulated LPMO enzyme to work in association with CMF chemistry, suggesting that G. trabeum may have adopted mechanisms to integrate non-enzymatic and enzymatic chemistries together during early stages of brown rot decay.

Mineralization of petrochemical wastewater after biological treatment by ozonation catalyzed with divalent iron tartaric acid chelate

The petrochemical wastewater includes many toxic organic compounds, which are refractory substances. It is difficult for the wastewater to meet discharge standards after biological treatment, therefore, the further effective treatment of post-biochemical petrochemical wastewater has become an urgent problem to be solved. This study used iron tartaric acid chelate (ITC) catalytic ozonation to treat the petrochemical wastewater. Various key factors were investigated, such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), catalyst dosage, ozone concentration, initial pH values and oxidation efficiency. The kinetics of catalytic ozonation were established. The results indicate that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate reached a maximum of 58.5%, when the Fe²⁺ dosage is 0.25 mmol L^-1, the initial pH value is neutral, the liquid phase ozone concentration is about 1.95 mg L^-1, and HRT is equal to 180 min. In addition, when HRT is equal to 90 min, the B/C ratio of wastewater increases to 0.31, the catalytic ozone reaches maximum oxidation efficiency, and the most economical HRT was 90 min. Finally, the kinetics of ITC catalytic ozonation catalyzed with ITC is consistent with the pseudo-first-order kinetic reaction, and its rate constant is 0.00484 min^-1.

Investigation of furfural biodegradation in a continuous inflow cyclic biological reactor

The performance of a continuous inflow cyclic biological reactor (CBR) containing moving media was investigated for the degradation of high concentrations of furfural. The effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and furfural initial concentrations (loading rate), as main operating parameters, on the bioreactor performance were studied. The results indicated that the CBR could remove over 98% of furfural and 71% of its chemical oxygen demand (COD) at inlet furfural concentrations up to 1,200 mg L(-1) (2.38 g L(-1) d(-1)), a 6-h cycle time and HRT of 12.1 h. The removal efficiency decreased slightly from 98 to 94% when HRT decreased from 12.1 to 10.5 h. The average removal efficiency of furfural and COD during the 345-day operational period under steady-state conditions were 97.7% and 82.1%, respectively. The efficiency also increased approximately 17.2% after addition of synthetic polyurethane cubes as moving media at a filling ratio of 10%.