Removal of p-cresol using wash waters of lipopeptide production.

Gomes, Wyllerson Evaristo; Corrêa, Amanda Arthuzo; Beatto, Thainá Godoy; Etchegaray, Augusto; Nogueira, Alessandra Borin; Mendes, Renata Kelly

This work shows the efficiency of wash waters from lipopeptide production as a remediation strategy to treat urban water samples contaminated with p-cresol. The harvesting in surfactin production involved a step of centrifugation, generating a major soluble fraction and a fraction that is adsorbed to biomass. The adsorbed fraction was recovered by washing steps. These wash-waters containing lipopeptides (mostly surfactins), which were successfully used to adsorb and solubilize p-cresol. The method of decontamination applied to an artificially contaminated natural water sample was monitored using a biosensor based on laccase/magnetic nanoparticles. Given the amount of surfactin within the wash water the removal of p-cresol from artificially contaminated water was approximately 46.0 %. This result confirms the successful sustainable application of surfactin-rich wash waters to remove p-cresol from artificially contaminated natural water. The adsorption mechanism is potentially based on a multi-layer adsorption process, considering on Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms.