Solubilization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with phenol in coking wastewater treatment system: Interaction and engineering significance

Qiaoping Kong; Haizhen Wu; Lei Liu; Fengzhen Zhang; Sergei Preis; Shuang Zhu; Chaohai Wei

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.077

Solubilization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with phenol in coking wastewater treatment system: Interaction and engineering significance

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jul 1:628-629:467-473. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.077. Epub 2018 Feb 13.

Authors

Qiaoping Kong¹, Haizhen Wu², Lei Liu³, Fengzhen Zhang³, Sergei Preis⁴, Shuang Zhu⁵, Chaohai Wei³

Affiliations

¹ School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
² School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: hzhwu2@scut.edu.cn.
³ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
⁴ Department of Materials and Environmental Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn 19086, Estonia.
⁵ School of Biosciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.

PMID: 29453175
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.077

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are accumulated in the sludge collected from the coking wastewater treatment. Phenol with its efficient degradation observed in biological treatment promotes the solubility of PAHs in aqueous phase. The interaction mechanism of phenol and PAHs in aqueous and sludge phases was systematically studied in two full-scale engineering projects composed of anaerobic-oxic-oxic (A-O₁-O₂) and anaerobic-oxic-hydrolytic-oxic (A-O₁-H-O₂) sequences. The results showed that reasonable use of phenol facilitates solubilization of PAHs alleviating their emission problems. The ΔPAHs/Δphenol mass ratio in the sludge phase of A-O₁-H-O₂ system (146.3) exceeded that in A-O₁-O₂ one (63.80), exhibiting a good solubilization effect on PAHs with their more efficient degradation in the former. The full-scale observations were verified in laboratory solubilization experiments using phenanthrene (Phen), pyrene (Pyr) and benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) as the models of 3-, 4- and 5-ring PAHs, respectively. The binding energies of [phenol^-PAHs] complexes were calculated using computational density functional theory showing consistency with the experimentally observed phenol-facilitated solubilization efficiencies in the row of Phen>Pyr>Bap. The results showed the fate and distribution of PAHs in coking wastewater treatment affected by the presence of phenol serving as a cost effective reagent for enhanced solubilization of PAHs from the coking wastewater sludge.

Keywords: Biodegradation; Coking wastewater sludge; PAHs; Phenol; Solubilization.