Date of Award

2023

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Keywords

Enzymatic treatment, Soybean peroxidase, Sulfa drugs, Sulfamerazine, Sulfamethoxazole, Wastewater treatment

Supervisor

K. E. Taylor

Supervisor

R.Seth

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Sulfa drugs are a broad family of antibiotics that are widely used in the treatment of a wide range of infections, and they have been found in surface and groundwater, as well as present in sewage and effluent (treated sewage and sludge)municipal or industrial wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). in concentrations of ng/L to >g/L. The continued presence of these so-called emerging pollutants (ECs) and their metabolites can cause adverse ecological effects, including bacterial resistance, even at very low concentrations. In this study, the first aim was to explore the feasibility of oxidation processes catalyzed by soybean peroxidase as an eco-friendly and economically advantageous alternative method for the conversion of selected sulfonamide class compounds. Soybean peroxidase (SBP) is extracted from the seed shell (husk), which is a by-product of the crushing process and is used in animal feed. In the second step, the most important operational parameters, pH, H2O2 concentration, and enzyme activity were optimized for two compounds that were SBP substrates. Thirdly, a redox mediator was used to improve the final conditions. Also, in the end, a time course study was conducted under optimal conditions before and after adding the redox mediator, to determine the initial first-order rate constant and half-life of each substrate. Finally, the probable oligomerization products of enzymatic treatment were characterized by mass spectrometry analysis and showed the formation of dimers and azo compounds for the two substrates.

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