Development of a bioreactor system for the remediation of endosulphan

Abstract

A bioreactor system that consisted of Pseudomonas fluorescens cells immobilised in calcium-alginate beads was utilised to remediate endosulphan contaminated water and soil. A packed bed reactor system was designed for the bio-degradation of endosulphan in artificially spiked water samples (initial concentration of endosulphan: 350 µg/L). Reactor studies with cell-immobilised Ca-alginate beads were conducted after checking their efficiency through batch and column degradation studies. The results showed that the concentration of toxic isomers of endosulphan (endosulphan alpha and endosulphan beta) was below the limit in the bioreactor during the 7th day of the experiment. Experiments conducted with contaminated soil samples (initial concentration of endosulphan: 1,000 μg/kg) indicated that the toxic isomers of endosulphan degraded to below the detection limit within 10 days and monitoring of endosulphan residues on the 14th day revealed that almost complete degradation of metabolites of endosulphan had occurred. The bioreactor system designed can be scaled up for remediation of endosulphan in contaminated areas.

Performance of a continuous stirred tank bioreactor employing an immobilized actinobacteria mixed culture for the removal of organophosphorus pesticides

“…However, when the bioreactor was subjected to the highest flow rate, the concentration of biomass in the medium increased, probably an effect of fluid that washed the immobilized biomass from the support, such as has been reported for the removal of contaminants using packed-bed biofilm reactors or in a moving-bed biofilm reactor (Yañez-Ocampo et al 2011;Alfonso-Gordillo et al 2016;Azizi et al 2019). This rapid removal of pesticides is mainly due to increased cell concentration in the immobilized support (Jesitha and Harikumar 2019).…”