engleski

Interaction of Zeolites and Phosphate Accumulating Bacteria

Zeolites display many useful applications in the field of pollution abatement. Phosphate contained in the wastewater can cause eutrophication when it is discharged into closed natural water bodies. During the last years, the enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR) became preferred process of phosphate removal from wastewater. The process of the EBPR from wastewater is based on the activity of phosphate-accumulating bacteria. Currently attention is being drawn to the implementation of zeolites in the wastewater treatment process in order to achieve a higher efficiency of the phosphate removal from wastewaters. Since the nature of the interaction of zeolitic materials and phosphate-accumulating bacteria is almost uninvestigated up to date, this will be the main thematic which this review summarizes. Depending on the type and particle size of zeolite, different interactions between material and phosphate-accumulating bacteria were observed. Natural clinoptilolite tuffs are excellent bacterial carriers and the main mechanism of interaction is immobilization of bacteria onto the surface of material and increase of the total bacterial biomass concentration. With the aim of better removal of phosphate from wastewater the surface modified clinoptilolite tuffs also gain importance. In spite, the synthetic zeolites display the toxic effect against phosphate-accumulating bacteria.

Bacteria; zeolite; immobilization; wastewater

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