Enzymatic treatment for removal of hazardous aqueous arylamines, 4,4'-methylenedianiline and 4,4'-thiodianiline.

The search for an effective and sustainable treatment method to remove the recalcitrant atom-bridged bis-anilino compounds, 4,4'-methylenedianiline (MDA) and 4,4'-thiodianiline (TDA) from water is a major challenge and focus of this study. The escalating discharge of these two toxic and carcinogenic pollutants from industrial sources may pose a serious threat to the environment. Crude soybean peroxidase (SBP), isolated from soybean seed hulls (coats), catalyzes the oxidative polymerization of these aqueous pollutants in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The effects of several process parameters, i.e., pH, hydrogen peroxide-to-substrate concentration ratio and SBP concentration, were investigated to optimize the performance of enzymatic treatment. The minimum effective SBP concentration required for removal of MDA was 0.70 U/mL, which was higher than that of TDA (0.15 U/mL). The reaction time course to achieve ≥95% removal of these compounds from water was determined under those optimum conditions. Identification of the transformed products was performed by means of high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The products generally observed were protonated oxidized oxidative dimers and higher oligomers (most commonly azo-coupled products). Michaelis constant, K, and maximum reaction velocity, V, obtained from the Michaelis-Menten (M-M) model revealed that TDA had a 65-fold lower K than MDA (indicating TDA's higher affinity for SBP), and almost 5-fold higher V than MDA. A pro-forma cost analysis is presented to assess the possibility of commercialization of enzymatic treatment as an alternative to conventional/traditional treatment methods.