Removal of toxic phenol and 4-chlorophenol from waste water by horseradish peroxidase

The removal of phenol and chlorophenol from waste water catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase was studied in this paper. The effects of several main factors, such as incubation time, enzyme/phenol ratio, the flocculant and pH on phenol and chlorophenol removal, were discussed in detail. The results indicated that phenol and 4-chlorophenol were quickly removed from formulated waste water. The higher the enzyme/phenol ratio, the higher the removal percentage of pollutants was. The flocculant might increase the removal percentage of pollutants through enhancing the sedimentation of the reaction products. The results also showed that the optimum pH for the removal efficiency of phenol and chlorophenol was 9.0 in the test range of 5.0 to 9.0.