Development of a hybrid system combining advanced oxidative processes and enzymatic biocatalysis for antiepileptic drug degradation in continuous flow reactors

Abstract

The occurrence of micropollutants in aqueous matrices is becoming a worldwide concern and a challenge for wastewater treatment plants. Diversity, difficult detection and recalcitrance are some of the characteristics of these emerging pollutants, which can pose risks to human and environmental health. Conventional technologies in general are not able to remove these contaminants, among which antiepileptic drugs. In this context, Advanced Oxidative Processes (AOP) and enzymatic biocatalysis are possible alternative treatment systems, which can be combined in reactors and act together in the generation of hydroxyl radicals. These radicals can degrade a wide variety of contaminants that are daily and continuously introduced into the environment. Therefore, this project aims to study strategies to degrade antiepileptic compounds in a continuous process, in which the technologies UVC/H2O2 and enzymatic biocatalysis are combined. For this purpose, peroxidase from the fungus Trichoderma, obtained by submerged fermentation in an alternative substrate, a new enzymatic source with interesting oxi-reductive characteristics, will be used. The enzyme will be used in its free and immobilized forms, and the treatment process will be studied in a continuous flow flat plate reactor. Different process arrangements will be explored, in which the AOP and enzymatic biocatalysis can occur concomitantly or in series for the degradation of selected antiepileptic drugs. The viability of the treatment will be analyzed in relation to the input and output concentration of the target pollutant, and also through cytotoxicity and genotoxicity analyses. (AU)