BIOTREATMENT OF GTL PROCESS WATER AND PESTICIDES CONTAMINATED WATER USING PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Over 40% of the world's population suffers from water scarcity, a problem that is expected to get worse because of global warming and desertification. Therefore, the mean of treatment and reuse of wastewater has become more critical. Very limited studies have investigated the biodegradation of organic contaminants in GTL process water and propamocarb HCl fungicide-contaminated water. Therefore, the objective and novelty of this work are to perform a comparative study on the biodegradation of organic contaminants in GTL process water and propamocarb hydrochloride-contaminated wastewater using pseudomonas aeruginosa. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the biodegradation of the contaminated wastewater using Pseudomonas aeruginosa immobilized in PVA matrices in a specially designed Spouted Bed Bioreactor System (SBBS). The initial COD of GTL process water and fungicide-contaminated water ranged from 1000 to 3000 mg/l and 500 to 1000, respectively. The parameters investigated include the PVA volume fraction, COD concentration, and pH. Maximum COD reduction efficiency of GTL process water and propamocarb contaminated water was found to be 89% and 42% at an initial COD of 2595 mg/l, PVA v% of 27, and pH of 7.3, and at initial COD of 1000 mg/l, PVA v% of 30, and pH of 8, respectively. The results revealed that propamocarb fungicide is very toxic and difficult to biodegrade, as it consists of compounds containing aliphatic aldehyde and amines. Thus, the rest of the study focused on the biodegradation of organic contaminants in GTL PW. The findings from continuous experiments showed that the biodegradation rate of GTL process water increased with increasing the air flow rate, and decreasing the liquid flow rate. The rate of biodegradation is predicted to be significantly affected by mass transfer limiations.