Immobilized cell reactors in mineralization of dicarboxylic acid solid waste

Dicarboxylic acid solid waste containing phthalic acid, malic acid, quinone, saturated and unsaturated dicarboxylic esters etc., are discharged in huge quantities during the crackdown of benzene over the catalyst vanadium at temperatures greater than 500 °C in a dicarboxylic acid manufacturing industry. Concern over the biological effects of these compounds underlines the necessity to treat this solid waste. The role of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and anaerobic mixed bacterial cultures immobilized in activated carbon, in sequential two stage anoxic reactors, were investigated for the degradation of dicarboxylic acid solid waste (DASW). In the first stage, DASW was dissolved in water to yield a concentration of 0.5% w/v and was treated in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized reactor at an optimum residence time of 24 h. The yeast fermented samples were further treated in an upflow anaerobic reactor containing mixed culture immobilized in activated carbon at an Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) of 0.2076 days at an hydraulic flow rate of 14.6×10⁻³ m³/day and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) loading rate of 4.3 kg/m³/day. The intermediates that were formed during the yeast fermentation and the anaerobic degradation of DASW were characterized by HPLC, proton NMR, C¹³ NMR and mass spectrometry.