Biodegradation of phenol by calcium-alginate immobilized Bacillus cereus in a packed bed reactor and determination of the mass transfer correlation

Biodegradation of phenol by calcium-alginate immobilized Bacillus cereus AKG1 MTCC9817 and B. cereus AKG2 MTCC9818 in a re-circulated up-flow packed bed reactor was performed. The observed biodegradation rate constants were calculated at various flow rates by assuming first-order biodegradation kinetics. The effect of external mass transfer combined with intrinsic biodegradation reaction on the observed biodegradation was investigated by the correlation between the Colburn factor (JD) and Reynolds number (N-Re) as JD = K N-Re (-(1-n)) with values of K and n in the range of present experimentation as 1.34 and 0.35, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.