Substrate-substrate interaction of resorcinol and catechol in upflow anaerobic fixed film – fixed bed reactors in mono and multisubstrate matrices

Abstract

Biodegradation of resorcinol and catechol was studied in up¯ow anaerobic ®xed ®lm-®xed bed (FFFB) reactors of uniform dimensions in mono and multisubstrate matrices. Cross feeding studies have revealed that phenol was poorly degraded in resorcinol acclimated reactor whereas it was readily degraded in catechol acclimated reactor. Addition of resorcinol along with phenol in a COD ratio 1:3 in resorcinol reactor increased phenol removal ef®ciency to 95% indicating that resorcinol induces phenol degradation. When both resorcinol and catechol were fed to the resorcinol acclimated reactor, it was observed that resorcinol degradation was inhibited by catechol. Catechol acclimated reactor could degrade phenol readily when added as mono substrate indicating that it may be an intermediate in catechol degradation. In binary mixture studies also catechol reactor could degrade phenol, resorcinol and hydroquinone to 90%. Catechol acclimated reactor exhibits relaxed substrate speci®city whereas resorcinol acclimated reactor exhibits rigid substrate speci®city for phenol as well as other isomers.

Exhausted carbon for the removal of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia

“…Generally, substrate interactions and degradation patterns in biofilters will depend on the microbial community that is established in the column which, in turn may be a function of the acclimation history. The substrate interactions can be different even in the same microbial culture, depending on how the microbial culture was initially acclimated (Kar et al, 1996;Swaminathan et al, 1999). Once an adequate culture is established, the level of substrate interactions was somewhat reduced (Rozich and Colvin, 1986).…”