Cost-effective, scalable production of glucose oxidase using Casuarina equisetifolia biomass and its application in the bio-Fenton oxidation process for the removal of trace organic contaminants from wastewater.

This study focuses on using Casuarina equisetifolia biomass for pilot-scale glucose oxidase production from Aspergillus niger and its application in the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) from municipal wastewater through the bio-Fenton oxidation. The cost of glucose oxidase was 0.005 $/U, including the optimum production parameters, 10% biomass, 7% sucrose, 1% peptone, and 3% CaCO ₃ at 96 h with an enzyme activity of 670 U/mL. Optimized conditions for H ₂ O ₂ were 1 M glucose, 100 U/mL glucose oxidase, and 120 mins of incubation, resulting in 544.3 mg/L H ₂ O ₂ . Thus, H ₂ O ₂ produced under these conditions lead to bio-Fenton oxidation resulting in the removal of 36-92% of nine TrOCs in municipal wastewater at pH 7.0 in 360 mins. Therefore, this work establishes the cost-effective glucose oxidase-producing H ₂ O ₂ as an attractive bioremediating agent to enhance the removal of TrOCs in wastewater at neutral pH.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)