Internal loop photo-biodegradation reactor used for accelerated quinoline degradation and mineralization

Biodegradation. 2014 Jul;25(4):587-94. doi: 10.1007/s10532-014-9683-4. Epub 2014 Feb 1.

Abstract

Biofilm biodegradation was coupled with ultra-violet photolysis using the internal loop photobiodegradation reactor for degradation of quinoline. Three protocols-photolysis alone (P), biodegradation alone (B), and intimately coupled photolysis and biodegradation (P&B)-were used for degradation of quinoline in batch and continuous-flow experiments. For a 1,000 mg/L initial quinoline concentration, the volumetric removal rate for quinoline was 38 % higher with P&B than with B in batch experiments, and the P&B kinetics were the sum of kinetics from the P and B experiments. Continuous-flow experiments with an influent quinoline concentration of 1,000 mg/L also gave significantly greater quinoline removal in P&B, and the quinoline-removal kinetics for P&B were approximately equal to the sum of the removal kinetics for P and B. P&B similarly increased the rate and extent of quinoline mineralization, for which the kinetics for P&B were nearly equal to the sum of kinetics for P and B. These findings support that the rate-limiting step for mineralization was transformation of quinoline, which was accelerated by the simultaneous action of photolysis and biodegradation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Batch Cell Culture Techniques
  • Biodegradation, Environmental / radiation effects
  • Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis
  • Kinetics
  • Minerals / metabolism*
  • Photobioreactors / microbiology*
  • Quinolines / metabolism*
  • Rheology
  • Ultraviolet Rays*

Substances

  • Minerals
  • Quinolines
  • quinoline