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

286-293The applications of treatment of industrial wastewater containing phenols and aromatic amines have received increased attention in recent past. Classical chemical and physical methods are not successful due to varying drawbacks in these methods. Biological treatment of wastewater is also facing some serious limitations and is more expensive. It is expected that those methods based on oxido-reductive enzymes have the potential to detoxify the wastewater containing phenols and aromatic amines and can provide an alternative procedure to all other known methods. An advantage of this procedure is that these enzymes act on a broad range of substrates and under the low concentration of substrates. Numerous phenol-oxidases are described here such as peroxidases, tyrosinases, and laccases. An attempt has been made to review the work carried out by using soluble as well as immobilized oxido-reductive enzymes for the removal of phenols and aromatic amines from industrial wastewaters