Removal of triclosan in municipal wastewater by using an enzymatic method

Abstract

Currently, wastewater treatment has received attention as one of the most relevant activities to ensure environmental sustainability. This is due to the increased consumption of chemicals as many of them enter directly or indirectly into the environment through effluent discharge, causing pollution of water bodies, which consequently have negative effects in humans. Herein, in this study was focused on the elimination of triclosan (Contaminant of Emerging Concern, CEC) in wastewater, by using immobilized lignolitic enzymes (laccases). Moreover, an electrochemical oxidation pretreatment was applied over the effluents in order to improve the biocatalytic removal performance of Triclosan. Laccase from P. sanguineus CS43 was covalently bonded onto titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles whose surface was previously functionalized with (3-aminopropyl)-triethoxysilane (APTES) and glutaraldehyde. The optimized parameters used in the electrooxidation for pH, current density and treatment time were 2, 10 mA/cm2, and 76 min, respectively. The monitoring of triclosan concentration was carried out by means of gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).