Author(s):
Van der Zee, F. P.
; Silva, A. Barbot
; Alves, M. M.
Date: 2005
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/4529
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Description
Sequential anaerobic-aerobic treatment is the most logical biological strategy
for the removal of azo dyes from wastewater. In the anaerobic stage, azo dyes,
which generally resist aerobic biodegradation, are fortuitously reduced under
anaerobic conditions, yielding colorless aromatic amines. In the aerobic stage,
aromatic amines, which generally do not undergo further transformation under
anaerobic conditions, are prone to oxidative (bio)transformation under aerobic
conditions. Since research on aromatic amine biodegradation has been
usually conducted with relatively stable, not easily autoxidizing aromatic
amines, representing only a part of the aromatic amines from azo dyes, still
much is unknown about the aerobic fate of azo dye cleavage products. In this
screening study we investigated the biodegradability of seven chemically
reduced azo dyes and two aromatic amines. The compounds were incubated
with dyestuff-adapted sludge in the presence of either oxygen, perchlorate,
nitrate, Fe(III) or Mn(IV) as the electron acceptors. CO2-production, O2-
consumption and changes in HPLC-chromatograms and UV/VIS-spectra were
monitored. Preliminary results indicate that biodegradation had been limited to
relatively simple benzene-based aromatic amines.