Removal of phenol from wastewater using membrane-immobilized enzymes: Part II. Cross-flow filtration

A cross-flow enzyme-immobilized membrane reactor was used to investigate the removal of phenol and catechol from water. A strain coded as AEK-1, identified as a species of Pseudomonas syringae was used to obtain the crude enzyme extract. Crude enzyme extract was chemically immobilized onto a flat polyamide membrane with nominal pore size of 0.2 μm. The degradation process was carried out in a cross-flow filtration module. The highest phenol-degradation rate was 1.3 μg/cm2 s when the initial concentration of phenol was 500 μg/ml at the flux rate of 4.60×10−3 ml/cm2 s. Apparent reaction rate increased with increasing flux rate. Damköhler number, Da, was calculated to be 380. The external effectiveness factor, η, was found to be ca. 0.01. The results obtained from enzyme-immobilized membrane reactor showed that the reaction rate was diffusion controlled.