Biodegradation of tetrahydrofuran by Pseudomonas oleovorans DT4 immobilized in calcium alginate beads impregnated with activated carbon fiber: Mass transfer effect and continuous treatment

A novel entrapment matrix, calcium alginate (CA) coupled with activated carbon fiber (ACF), was prepared to immobilize Pseudomonas oleovorans DT4 for degrading tetrahydrofuran (THF). The addition of 1.5% ACF increased the adsorption capacity of the immobilized bead, thus resulting in an enhanced average removal rate of 30.3   mg/(L   h). The synergism between adsorption and biodegradation was observed in the hybrid CA–ACF beads instead of in the system comprising CA beads and freely suspended ACF. The effective diffusion coefficient of the CA–ACF bead was not significantly affected by bead size, but the bead’s value of 1.14   ×   10 −6   cm 2 /s (for the bead diameter of 0.4   cm) was larger than that of the CA bead by almost one order of magnitude based on the intraparticle diffusion–reaction kinetics analysis. Continuous treatment of the THF-containing wastewater was succeeded by CA–ACF immobilized cells in a packed-bed reactor for 54   d with a >90% removal efficiency.