Duringthe last few decades, an array of foreign compounds has been introduced into
the environment due to the revolution of industrial field. The accumulation of
these compounds has resulted in environmental contamination and contributed too
many deleterious effects on living systems. The need to remove these
contaminations has led to the development of new technologies with different
removal performance and cost levels. Traditionally waste waters were treated by
Physico Chemical methods, but recently Microbial Degradation has been widely
studied and used as a low-cost alternative and offering the possibility of
complete mineralization of organic compounds. Studies on microbial means of
treating Phenolic effluents date back at least two decades. The toxicity of
Phenol has been widely documented and their disastrous effect towards human and
environment is greatly concerned. Phenolics constitute 11 of the 126 chemicals
that have been designated as priority by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency.
Phenolin water and wastewater has been the major organic chemicals. and is associated
with pulp mills, coal mines, gasoline, petrochemicals, wood preservation
plants, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, detergents, solvents, polymeric
resin production, plastic rubber proofing, disinfectants, pharmaceuticals,
metallurgical, explosives, textiles, dyes, the coffee industry, domestic waste,
agricultural run-off, and chemical spills. The maximum Permissible limit of
Phenolic compounds in leachates for safe disposal to inland surface water is
1mg/L. Phenol is currently removed by methods such as
precipitation/coagulation, osmosis, ion-exchange, ultra filtration, electro
dialysis, electrochemical degradation, floatation, etc., which are costly and
inefficient. These current treatment methods often produce other toxic end
products, requiring further processing.
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