Crude soybean hull peroxidase treatment of phenol in synthetic and real wastewater: Enzyme economy enhanced by Triton X-100

•Triton increases the efficacy of crude SBP by 10–13-fold.•SBP and SBP-Triton concentrations optimized for phenol (1–10mM) removal.•Phenol (7–28mM) removal from alkyd resin wastewater was achieved with crude SBP. Soybean peroxidase (SBP)-catalyzed removal of phenol from wastewater has been demonstrated as a feasible wastewater treatment strategy and a non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-100, has the potential for increasing the enzyme economy of the process. Systematic studies on the enzyme–surfactant system have been lacking as well as demonstration of its applicability to industrial wastewater. This paper addresses those two gaps, the latter based on real wastewater from alkyd resin manufacture. The minimum effective Triton X-100 concentrations for crude SBP-catalyzed phenol conversion (≥95%) over 1–10mM showed a linear trend. To illustrate translation of such lab results to real-world samples, this data were used to optimize crude SBP needed for phenol conversion over that concentration range. Triton X-100 increases enzyme economy by 10- to 13-fold. This treatment protocol was directly applied to tote-scale (700–1000L) treatment of alkyd resin wastewater, with phenol ranging from 7 to 28mM and total organic carbon content of >40g/L, using a crude SBP extract derived from dry soybean hulls by simple aqueous elution. This extract can be used to remove phenol from a complex industrial wastewater and the process is markedly more efficient in the presence of Triton X-100. The water is thus rendered amenable to conventional biological treatment whilst the hulls could still be used in feed, thus adding further value to the crop.