Detoxification of Phenols and Aromatic Amines from Polluted Wastewater by Using Phenol Oxidases

The applications of treatment of industri al wastewater containing phenol s and aromat ic amines have received increased atten ti on in recent past. Classical chemical and physical methods arc not successfu l due to varying drawbacks in these methods. Biological treatment o f was tewater is also facing some serious limitations and is more expensive. It is expected that those methods based on oxido-reducti ve enzymes have the potential to detoxify the was tewater contai ning pheno ls and aromati c amines and can provide an a lternative procedure to all other known methods. An advant age of this procedure is that these enzymes ac t on a broad range of substrates and under the low concent ra tion of substrates . Nu merous phenol-axidases are described here such as perox idases, tyrosinases, and laccases. An attempt has been made to review the work carried out by using sol ubl e as well as immobiiized ox ido-reductive enzymes fo r the remo val o f phenols and aromati c ami nes from industrial wastewaters.