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；制药厂；化妆品、染料和树脂制造厂等。这些都是对加拿大经济非常重要的行业。然而，许多产生的液体废物含有有毒污染物，这些污染物也被列为优先污染物。其中许多污染物包括：酚、苯、甲苯和其他芳香族化合物。高浓度时，这些化学物质会对各种生态系统造成危害，因此，受污染的废水在排放到环境中之前必须经过处理。工程师们设计了许多技术，如：吸附、化学沉淀、生物处理等来去除此类化合物，但这些技术大多效率有限和/或成本高昂。*申请人和他的研究小组开发了一种技术，通过使用酶在一定条件下催化这些有毒化合物并使它们聚合(产生不同大小的固体)，从实验室废水中去除酚类和其他芳香族化合物(包括双酚A(BPA))。然后可以使用混凝-絮凝过程去除这些固体。与目前的传统工艺相比，这种方法是一种更简单、更环保的替代方法。然而，其他芳香族化合物，如苯、甲苯等，在母体状态下对酶处理没有反应。因此，在对它们进行酶处理之前，人们正在尝试将它们转化为酚类物质(通过芬顿反应)。酶处理的成本受酶的成本影响很大。幸运的是，大豆过氧化物酶(SBP)是一种副产品，也是一种极具成本效益的酶，已经显示出巨大的潜力。拟议中的技术将扩展到处理炼油厂的真实废水。因此，它有可能成功地去除这些有毒化合物，并将其商业化，从而使加拿大的工业和环境受益。****

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. ****