BIOTECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF LIGNINOLYTIC ENZYMES FOR POLLUTANT BIODEGRADATION IN WATER: FROM TEST-TUBES TO FULL-SCALE ENZYMATIC REACTORS

Population growth, industrialization and the lack of restrictions on the use of recalcitrant compounds have led to the release of large amounts of pollutants. Water resources have been particularly affected by the presence of these compounds because the conventional wastewater treatments are unable to completely remove these pollutants. In fact, certain pharmaceutical products have been detected in drinking water at concentrations as high as 0.3 mu g/L. The seriousness of environmental pollution has triggered the development of scientific activities for the prevention and control of water pollution; among them, the application of enzymatic processes is emerging as a promising alternative. The stability of some ligninolytic enzymes and the development of processes for their repeated reuse, have been fundamental to scale-up enzymatic experiments from test-tubes to full-scale reactors. This review shows the key advances for scaling-up the enzymatic degradation processes, the problems that have arisen during the operation of different reactors and the strategies that have served to solve these problems. Finally, the work includes a cost comparison between the utilization of enzymatic treatments and other technologies. The available information indicates that enzymatic treatments have a real potential to compete with other processes in terms of efficiency, costs and environmental impact.