Research project HALOMIK

Use of halophilic microorganisms for the treatment of highly contaminated saline wastewater and studies on the immobilization of the adapted pollutant-degrading microorganism cultures by means of sol-gel fixation, subsection: efficacy studies

Partner:  (all GER)
- TRITON Environmental Protection Bitterfeld
- M&K GmbH Halle/Saale
- GMBU e.V. Sebnitz
- Anhalt University of Applied Sciences Köthen
- Dresden University of Technology - Institute of Materials Science

Funding:  German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration:  January 2001 - December 2003

Project description:

The institute's investigations were essentially geared towards tracking the degradation path of the selected pollutants via single substance analysis.

Depending on the composition of the wastewater, possible inhibition effects are to be expected, which can be detected by toxicity measurement methods. If work has to be carried out under particularly high pollutant concentrations, the use of granular activated carbon as a "buffer" is an option.

Highly toxic substances have been shown to exhibit good elimination rates at high concentrations exclusively in the presence of activated carbon.

Substeps:
- Literature research on properties of substances and degradation pathways.
- Development of the analytics (HPLC, GC)
- Application of the microorganisms
- Investigation of the degradation kinetics
- Mutagenicity studies
- Investigations with activated carbon

In addition to a better understanding of the degradation pathways of the investigated substances, the results obtained were primarily used to improve the elimination potential, e.g. in wastewater treatment plants. This is of great importance for the remediation of highly contaminated waters.