Aerobic Degradation of Formaldehyde in Wastewater from the Production of Melamine Resins

Margareta Glancer-Šoljan¹*, Vice Šoljan², Tibela Landeka Dragičević¹ and Ljiljana Čačić<sup>3

1</sup>Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, P.O.B. 625, HR-10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
²»Ekološki inženjering« d.o.o. Poreč, Ive Andrića 76, HR-52 000 Poreč, Croatia
³»Ekolaboratorij«, Vodovod d.o.o. Osijek, Poljski put 1, HR-31 000 Osijek, Croatia

Article history:
Received March 15, 2001
Accepted June 20, 2001

Key words:
mixed culture of bacteria and yeast, aerobic degradation of formaldehyde, wastewater from production of melamine resins

Summary:
Selected strains of Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas cepacia, Trichosporon penicillatum yeast and the mixed culture of these three strains were used for aerobic degradation of formaldehyde and formic acid in the synthetic medium and wastewater generated by melamine resins production. It has been shown that the mixed culture in the synthetic medium degrades 1000 mg/L of formaldehyde over 18–24 hours and 500 mg/L of formic acid over 12–18 hours. Aerobic degradation of wastewater from the production of melamine resins with the use of mixed bacterial and yeast culture was achieved in 24 hours with COD reduction of over 90 % and complete degradation of formaldehyde, methanol and butanol. The role of Trichosporon penicillatum yeast in the mixed culture, during aerobic degradation of formaldehyde in the synthetic medium and wastewater, was to form flocculent  biomass that is self-precipitating.

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