Biological degradation of some organic compounds involved in the paper industry

An evaluation of the biodegradation by aerobic microorganisms was investigated for some organic compounds occurring in paper manufacturing technology. Lines of biodegradation for nine organic compounds, as a percentage removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), were detected over seven days incubation. The results of the biodegradability test clearly revealed that some of the organic compounds under investigation were highly biodegradable while others ranked from fairly biodegradable to non-biodegradable. Significant biodegradation results were recorded as COD removal, for anti-coating ester (95.0 percent), Basoplast 200D (85.3 percent) and Basoplast PR 8050 (87.6 percent). The bleaching agent (formamidin-sulfinic acid), Ukanol BSA and Solidurit KM demonstrated moderate biodegradation with results of 62.1 percent, 76.2 percent and 69.8 percent, respectively. Poor biodegradation results for Hedifix M/35 (12.7 percent), Basazol Orange (34.9 percent) and Basazol Brown (29.0 percent) were recorded. Accordingly, appropriate precautions should be taken into consideration when applying these compounds to paper manufacturing processes.