Coumaphos pesticide degradation

In an approach to utilize enzymes to degrade pesticides recombinant organo-phosphate hydrolase (OPH) was anchored to the surface of E.coli cells and packed in a bioreactor [7]. A similar approach used E.coli cells with OPH on the surface, immobilized on glass beads [7], silica beads [8] or nylon [9]. In 2005 a group reported the immobilization of the pesticide degrading enzyme OPH on a cellulose matrix. The enzyme was attached to the matrix via a cellulose binding domain [10]. When packed in a column bioreactor the immobilized OPH was able to degrade a 0.2 mM solution of the pesticide coumaphos rapidly and without loss of activity over 2 months [11]. Another possibility to use enzymes in a solid form to catalyze... 

Laboratory-scale smdies in degradation of pesticides are very important, since they allow the simulation of the behavior of pesticides in conditions that can be applied on field-scale. Mulbry et al., have developed a biofilter capable of handling about 15,000 dip-liter batches of dip waste containing the organophosphate pesticide, coumaphos. This biofllter was able to reduce the concentration of couma-phos from 2000 to 10 ppm in approximately 14 days at 25-29 °C, demonstrating the importance of the field-scale smdies (Mulbry et al. 1998). 

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