Effluent treatment by simultaneous bio-degradation and adsorption technique

Abstract

In the present paper the application of microbes for the treatment of pulp and paper mill effluent has been briefly reviewed. The paper also discusses the result obtained from experiments on degradation of phenolic compounds (phenol, cresol and chlorophenol) by specific species of bacteria, both in bulk and immobilized phases in a reactor. The microbial decomposition of pheno, o-cresol and chlorophenol has been studied separately. The efficiency of degradation in each case has been found to improve due to the immobilization, where as, pH has been found to increase with the degree of degradation within a small range. Specific uptakes and break through points have been compared for the above three different compounds for a given adsorbents.