ABSTRACT
Cyanidase, an immobilized enzyme preparation for hydrolyzing cyanide to ammonia and formate, was applied for the treatment of cyanide-containing waste waters from the food industry. Apricot seed extract was chosen as a model effluent. The enzymatic hydrolysis of pure amygdalin, the main cyanogenic glycoside in the extract, and the degradation of the cyanide formed was investigated and compared with the behavior of the real extract in a batch slurry reactor. A diffusional-type, flat-membrane reactor with immobilized cyanidase was developed, where the enzyme is effectively protected from adverse effects of high molecular components contained in the extract. For monitoring continuous-membrane reactor operation, a new unsegmented ammonia measurement system was developed and applied. In continuous operation the cyanidase retained its original activity for more than 400 hours on steam.
ABSTRACT
Cyanidase is a new enzyme preparation capable of degrading cyanide in industrial wastewaters to ammonia and formate in an apparently one-step reaction, down to very low concentrations. This enzyme has both a high selectivity and affinity toward cyanide. A granular form of the biocatalyst was used in a recirculation fixed bed reactor in order to characterize the new biocatalyst with respect to pH, ionic strength, common ions normally present in wastewaters, mass transfer effects, and temperature. Long term stability was investigated. The kinetics of the enzymatic degradation of cyanide were studied in a batch reactor using the powdered immobilized enzyme preparation and modeled using a simple Michaelis-Menten equation.
