Aldicarb degradation in a horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass bioreactor

Author(s)

Leonardo Henrique Soares Damasceno

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2008-11-28

Examining board members

Marcelo Zaiat; Roberto Alves de Oliveira; Suzana Maria Ratusznei; José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues; Sandra Tedde Santaella

• Advisor: Marcelo Zaiat

Abstract

A bench-scale horizontal-flow anaerobic mmobilized biomass (HAIB) bioreactor was assayed aiming to verify its potential use for aldicarb degradation. Three levels of oxidation were evaluated: methanogenic, sulfidogenic and denitrifying conditions. An HPLC method for the determination of aldicarb, aldicarb sulfoxide and aldicarb sulfone in liquid samples without pretreatment was developed and validated. The effects of increasing aldicarb concentration were evaluated at 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 mg/L, extracted from the commercial product. The bioreactors were operated at a constant hydraulic detention time of 24 hours and 30°C. The best-removal efficiencies were obtained at the concentrations of 5 and 10 mg/L: 93.2 and 88.9% (methanogenic), 90.5 and 83.2% (sulfidogenic) e 88.0 and 94.3% (denitrifying), respectively. From 20 to 40 mg/L, the increase at the concentration of aldicarb caused reduction in the efficiency of removal in all levels of oxidation evaluated. The methanogenic and sulfidogenic bioreactors had similar performance, while the denitrifying bioreactor was not appropriate for concentrations above 10 mg/L. In the assays with differential reactors at the aldicarb concentration of 10 mg/L, the external and internal mass transfer resistance did not affect the overall substrate utilization rates. Thus, in these conditions, the apparent kinetic parameters corresponded to the intrinsic kinetic parameters. The first order rate constant (k1), validated through F-test, was 1.46 \'+ OU -\' 0.09·\'10 POT.-5\'·L/mgSVT.h (r2=0.994 \'+ OU -\' 0.001). The analysis of molecular biology for the Bacteria Domain showed predominance of Chloroflexi and Epsilon proteobacterium. In the Archaea Domain the predominant microrganism was Methanosaeta. (AU)