A hybrid bioreactor based on insolubilized tyrosinase and laccase catalysis and microfiltration membrane remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater.

The increasing presence of pharmaceutical products (PPs) and other organic contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic systems has become one of the major global environmental contamination concerns. Sewage treatment plants (STPs) are one of the major sources of PPs discharge into natural waters due to the deficiencies of conventional treatment processes to deal with these micropollutants. Numerous new treatment processes and technologies have been investigated for the removals of CECs in wastewaters with more or less success. In the present study, we investigated the efficiency of a hybrid bioreactor (HBR) of a combined crosslinked tyrosinase and laccase aggregates and hollow fiber microfiltration (MF) membrane to remove a mixture of 14 PPs from municipal wastewater at environmentally relevant concentration of 10 µg/L. After a 5-day continuous operation, the HBR achieved complete removal of all tested PPs. Results also highlight that these high performances result from a synergistic action of the MF membrane and the insoluble enzymes. The biocatalyst retained nearly 70% of its initial enzymatic activity over the treatment period. The removal of PPs is unlikely to result from their sole sorption on the membrane. Overall, the results suggest that the HBR is well suited to the biocatalysts (i.e. insolubilized tyrosinase and laccase). The results invite to further investigate how the HBR can be tailored with various types of enzymes and membranes for either specific or non-specific target substrates and to further explore the applicability of this technology for the continuous treatment of wastewater at environmentally relevant concentration of PPs.