Treatment of industrial wastewater

工业对加拿大的经济增长至关重要。这些行业包括：炼油厂；纸浆和造纸厂；药品生产商;化妆品、染料及树脂制造厂等。这些都是对加拿大经济非常重要的行业。然而，许多工厂产生的液体废物中含有有毒污染物，这些污染物也被列为优先污染物。这些污染物包括：苯酚、苯、甲苯和其他芳香族化合物。在高浓度的情况下，这些化学物质可能对各种生态系统有害，因此受污染的废水必须在排放到环境中之前进行处理。工程师们已经设计了许多技术，如：吸附、化学沉淀、生物处理等来去除这些化合物，但这些技术大多效率有限或成本高昂。

Industry is essential to Canada's economic growth. These industries include: petroleum refineries; pulp and paper mills; pharmaceutical producers; cosmetic, dye and resin manufacturing plants, etc. These are all very important industries for Canada's economy. However, many produce liquid wastes that contain toxic contaminants that are also listed as priority pollutants. Many of these pollutants include: phenols, benzene, toluene, and other aromatic compounds. At high concentrations these chemicals can be harmful to various ecosystems, thus polluted waste water must be treated before discharging into the environment. Engineers have devised many techniques, such as: adsorption, chemical precipitation, biological treatment, etc. for removing such compounds, but most of these techniques have limited efficiency and/or are costly. The applicant and his research group have developed a technology for removing compounds such as: phenolics and other aromatic compounds including Bisphenol A (BPA)) from waste water in the laboratory by using enzymes which catalyze these toxic compounds, under certain conditions, and polymerize (produces solids of various sizes) them. These solids can then be removed using a coagulation-flocculation process. This method is a simpler, more environmentally friendly alternative to current conventional processes. However, other aromatics such as benzene, toluene, etc., do not respond to the enzymatic treatment in its parent state. So, attempts are being made to transform them to phenolics (through Fenton reaction) before subjecting them to the enzymatic treatment. Costs for enzymatic treatment are influenced heavily by the cost of the enzymes. Fortunately, soyabean peroxidase (SBP), a by-product and an extremely cost-effective enzyme, has shown tremendous potential. The proposed technology will be extended to treat real wastewater from refineries. Therefore, it has the potential to be successful in removing these toxic compounds and to be commercialized thereby benefiting Canada's industries and environment.