Combination of catalytic ozonation and fungal bioremediation for treatment from effluent from the laminate production industry

Abstract

This study characterized and evaluated the potential of a combination of treatment strategies for the removal of phenolic compounds, color, and ecotoxicity of an effluent generated by a laminated wood industry. The characterization of a sample of the effluent generated by the pine lamination process collected in an industry in the Southwest region of the state of Paraná confirmed the potential impact of the effluent, with emphasis on the high content of phenolic compounds (1,530 ±50 mg/L), color (2,159 ±30 units), significant acute toxicity (63% mortality of microcrustaceans Artemia salina) and low biodegradability (BOD/COD=0.53), which, if eventually released into receiving bodies, can cause irreversible and harmful effects to the aquatic microbiota. The treatment processes studied in this work involved catalytic ozonation mediated by ferrous catalytic material based on steel scale and biological process with Pleurotus Florida fungi, evaluated in an individual way and sequentially integrated as follows: Catalytic ozonation>>biological process and vice-versa. The best results were obtained by applying the sequence "catalytic ozonation>>biological process", which resulted in reductions of 96.2% in soluble lignin concentrations, 93.3% in color units and more than 99% reduction in total phenols, in addition to a low mortality rate of  A. salina (≈10%). In the integrated process, the application of catalytic ozonation before the biological process presents greater advantages because of the pre-decomposition process of recalcitrant compounds by the chemical action of catalytic ozonation, which can convert these compounds into biodegradable, facilitating the action of the biological process for the remediation of the effluent.

Keywords: fungi, ozonation, phenols, wood lamination.