Biodegradation of 2, 4 Dichlorophenol

The present study focuses on the optimization of process parameters of the aerobic biodegradation of 2, 4 Dichlorophenol (2, 4 DCP) by a commercial strain of P. putida immobilized in PVA gel matrix, using design of experiments by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The degradation rates obtained from these experiments were used to evaluate the effects of the main factors and their interactions during the biodegradation of 2, 4 DCP. An effective quadratic regression model predicting the rate in terms of the main independent variables, namely temperature, initial pH and initial concentration of 2, 4 DCP, was developed. The optimum conditions for DCP degradation were obtained as follows: Temperature 32.6°C, pH 5.0 and initial DCP concentration 70.5 mg L^-1, resulting in a maximum predicted degradation rate of 41.8 mg L^-1 h^-1. Under these optimized conditions, a degradation rate of 40.1 mg L^-1 h^-1 was experimentally obtained, thus validating the model.