Winery wastewater treatment by combination of Cryptococcus laurentii and Fenton's reagent

- First report on WW treatment by two basidiomycetous yeasts followed by Fenton's reagent.
- Both yeasts had identical pollution abatement performances but C. laurentii was faster.
- H2O2 concentration was critical in COD and TPP removal.
- WW treated by biological and Fenton reagent is within legal limits for released in natural waters.

Winery wastewaters (WW) have high levels of organic matter, resulting in high COD and BOD and suspended solids. This paper studies the combination of biological and chemical processes in WW treatment. Among 10 yeast isolates, Filobasidium sp. (AGG 577) and Cryptococcus laurentii (AGG 726) were selected due to their superior performance in COD removal. During WW degradation, COD and total polyphenols (TPP) content removal of 89-90% for Filobasidium sp. and 90-93% for C. laurentii were obtained. However, despite similar degradation efficiency for both yeasts, COD kinetics and pH evolution during treatment reveals that C. laurentii presents a faster response than Filobasidium sp. The toxicity (inhibition of Vibrio fischeri luminescence) of C. laurentii treated WW decreases to an inhibition value below 2.5%. However, treated WW exceeds the legal limits, making necessary an additional treatment. In this case, the selection of Fenton's reagent as a chemical final polish step process is a good compromise between efficiency and lower practical complexity. The best results for both COD and TPP removal were obtained with H2O2 initial concentration of 39.2 mM and a H2O2:Fe2+ molar ratio of 15:1. The combined C. laurentii - Fenton's reagent treatment of WW achieved a total reduction of 98% and 96%, for COD and TPP, respectively.