Degradation of carbamazepine by Trametes versicolor in an air pulsed fluidized bed bioreactor and identification of intermediates

The paper describes the aerobic degradation of carbamazepine (CBZ), an anti-epileptic drug widely found in aquatic environment, from Erlenmeyer flask to bioreactor by the white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor. In Erlenmeyer flask, CBZ at approximately 9 mg L−1 was almost completely eliminated (94%) after 6 d, while at near environmentally relevant concentrations of 50 μg L−1, 61% of the contaminant was degraded in 7 d. Acridone, acridine, 10,11-dihydro-10,11-dihydroxy-CBZ, and 10, 11-epoxy-CBZ were identified as major metabolites, confirming the degradation of CBZ. The degradation process was then carried out in an air pulsed fluidized bioreactor operated in batch and continuous mode. Around 96% of CBZ was removed after 2 days in batch mode operation, and 10,11-dihydro-10,11-epoxycarbamazepine was found as unique metabolite. In bioreactor operated in continuous mode with a hydraulic retention time of 3 d, 54% of the inflow concentration (approx. 200 μg L−1) was reduced at the steady state (25 d) with a CBZ degradation rate of 11.9 μg CBZ g−1 dry weight d−1. No metabolite was detected in the culture broth. Acute toxicity tests (Microtox) indicated that the final culture broth in both batch and continuous mode operation were non toxic, with 15 min EC50 values of 24% and 77%, respectively.

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► Trametes versicolor is capable of degrading CBZ in liquid medium.
► Moderate to very high removal was observed in both reactors, i.e. batch and continuous modes.
► Four major transformation products of CBZ formed in the time-course experiments were identified.
► Acute toxicity tests showed that the final effluents of the reactors were not toxic