Phenol biodegradation using a repeated batch culture of Candida tropicalis in a multistage bubble column.

As in many other microorganisms, the growth rate of C. tropicalis is affected by phenol. Besides, when the yeast is aerobically cultivated in a medium containing phenol, using a bubble column, the yeast cell flotation phenomenon occurs, which makes the continuous operation of this type of reactor difficult. Therefore, a system of phenol degradation, which recycles the biomass separated by flotation, was devised in this work. In order to reduce the substrate toxicity observed at high phenol concentrations, the bubble column used in the biodegradation studies was fed in a semibatch mode. So, a semicontinuous system was implemented to treat effluents with relatively high concentrations (> 9,000 ppm) of phenol, by replacing periodically about 22% of the bioreactor operational volume. The phenol removal efficiencies obtained with this system were higher than 98.7%.