Enzymes immobilized polymeric supports for wastewater treatment application: a short review

Abstract

Micro-pollutants, with a growing number of hazardous contaminants being introduced into both human and natural ecosystems, have become a major topic of rising environmental concern and the biological method is an up-and-coming wastewater treatment technique in late decades. This review focuses on enzyme immobilization in biological wastewater treatment, in which enzymes are used to biodegrade and remove various types of pollutants. The synthesis of different kinds of polymer substrates, their biocompatibility, stability, reusability and application for the immobilization of enzymes, and their biochemical as well as biotechnological applications which employment of enzymes immobilization for different wastewater treatment processes are reviewed. Various cases of wastewater biotreatment are described, such as removal of pigments and colour in textile industry wastewater, refractory organics wastewater, as well as nitrogen and phosphorous wastewater treatment. The review concludes with a brief discussion of potential research directions in enzyme immobilization on polymeric supports for wastewater treatment application.