Desenvolupament d'un nou procés per a la depuració biològica d'aigües residuals industrials amb compostos fenòlics

Phenolic-containing industrial waste-waters such as paper and petrochemical industries) are highly pollutant and carcinogenic. Anaerobic treatment of these effluents is usually inefficient because of their toxic and recalcitrant characteristics. However, the application of lignolytic fungi, immobilized in percolation bioreactors, will permit the detoxification of these effluents by degrading low molecular weight phenolics, while increasing biodegradability by fractionation of high molecular weight compounds. Fungi pretreatment adequately combined with anaerobic digestion will permit to develop a new process of general application for this kind of effluents, for pollution abatment and simultaneous production of a valuable energetic compound: the methane.