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Development of Sulfidogenic Sludge from Marine Sediments and Trichloroethylene Reduction in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor
Published on: October 15, 2015
Desulfurization with Thialkalivibrio versutus immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles modified with
Tingzhen Mu1, Jixiang Zhao2, Yueping Guan2
1Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Objective:
Thialkalivibrio versutus D301 cells were immobilized on Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized by an improved chemical coprecipitation method and modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), then the immobilized cells were used in sulfur oxidation.
Results:
The prepared Fe3O4-APTES NPs had a narrow size distribution (10 ± 2 nm) and were superparamagnetic, with a saturation magnetization of 60.69 emu/g. Immobilized cells had a saturation magnetization of 34.95 emu/g and retained superparamagnetism. The optimum conditions for cell immobilization were obtained at pH 9.5 and 1 M Na+. The immobilization capacity of Fe3O4-APTES NPs was 7.15 g DCW/g-NPs that was 2.3-fold higher than that of Fe3O4 NPs. The desulfurization efficiency of the immobilized cells was close to 100%, having the same sulfur oxidation capacity as free cells. Further, the immobilized cells could be reused at least eight times, retaining more than 85% of their desulfurization efficiency.
Conclusion:
Immobilization of cells with the modified magnetic NPs efficiently increased cell controllability, have no effect on their desulfurization activity and could be effectively used in large-scale industrial applications.

