LANCE: Laccase-nanoparticle conjugates for the elimination of micropollutants (endocrine disrupting chemicals) from wastewater in bioreactors

Elimination of recalcitrant chemicals during wastewater treatment is a difficult problem for both developing and industrialized countries. The biological elimination of very persistent xenobiotics such as endocrine disrupting chemicals from municipal and industrial sewage treatment plants is an ambitious challenge as existing physico-chemical methods, such as advanced oxidation processes, are energy-intensive and consume high amounts of chemicals. Through the entry into force of strict legislative measures, such as the Water Framework Directives (EU WFD in Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy, 2000) and REACH (REACH EU in European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (EC 1907/2006), 2007), the market for wastewater treatment is exploding. For instance the European market potential for the membrane bioreactor technology is estimated to 57M€ per year. Based on recent progresses in nanotechnology, new developments in catalysis and environmental applications can be foreseen for the near future. Indeed, because of high surface area-to-volume ratio in nano-systems, heterogeneous enzymatic or catalytic reactions can be greatly enhanced. In the LANCE project a nanoparticle (NP)-based technology is under development. Cheap and resistant oxidative enzymes, i.e. laccases are immobilized onto the surface of the particles in order to produce systems possessing a broad substrate spectrum for the degradation of cocktails of recalcitrant pollutants. One of the objectives is to produce NPs that are compatible with wastewater treatment and can be synthesised in a cost-effective and large-scale fashion, e.g. silica-based NPs using flame spray pyrolysis and emulsion-based techniques. The modified particles are applied in bioreactors where they are retained, i.e. membrane bioreactors or perfusion basket reactors to eliminate pollutants from the wastewater. Such reactors allow multi-cycle use of the NPs coated with active enzymes and thus contribute to decrease the treatment costs. The two-year activities of the LANCE project encompass the synthesis of various NP systems, the immobilization of selected low cost industrial laccases on the latter, and the technical and scientific proof of the "depollution” concep

A Cyclodextrin Self-Assembled Monolayer (SAM) Based Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensor for Enantioselective Analysis of Thyroxine

Heptakis 6-deoxy-6-[12-(thiododecyl) undecanamido-β-cyclodextrin has been produced by reaction of Heptakis(6-deoxy-6-amino)-β-cyclodextrin and 12-(thiododecyl)undecanoic acid using O-Benzotriazol-1-yl-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium tetrafluoroborate (TBTU) as activating agent. Self-assembled monolayers of this macrocycle have been used in a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor; it has been shown that this system is suitable to discriminate between d and l enantiomers of thyroxine, with a greater affinity for the d-enantiome

Para-Carboxy Modified Amphiphilic Calixarene, Self-Assembly and Interactions with Pharmaceutically-Relevant Molecules

The self-assembly properties of the amphiphilic 5,11,17,23-tetra-carboxy-25,26,27,28-tetradodecyloxycalix[4]arene have been investigated at the air–water interface as monomolecular Langmuir layers and in water. The interactions of this amphiphile with salicylic acid (SA), acetyl-salicylic acid (ASA) and acetaminophene (APAP) have been studied at the air–water interface by means of the Langmuir balance technique. It has been demonstrated that the calix-arene molecules, when self-assembled as Langmuir monolayers, have the ability to interact with all the tested compounds. While APAP causes a stabilization of the monolayer, ASA and SA cause a slight loss of stability and a drastic change of the compressibility of the monolayer. The study of the self-assembly properties of the title compound in water revealed that this amphiphile can be self-assembled as solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). The atomic force microscopy investigations of the colloidal suspension, spread on a solid surface and dried, revealed the coexistence of the SLNs with layered structures

Nanoparticulate Systems: A New Competence Platform at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW): FH – HES

Nanotechnology in general and nanoparticles in particular are receiving increasing attention because of their almost unlimited possibilities and applications. In the group of Nanotechnology of the Institute of Chemistry and Bioanalytics of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (Fachhochschule Nordwest-schweiz), a new nanoparticle technology platform has been developed. The main research axes concern silica and self-assembled nanoparticles, and their applications in life sciences. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art spectroscopy and microscopy tools

Sorption-assisted surface conjugation: a way to stabilize laccase enzyme

Enyzme immobilization on solid surfaces is one of the most relevant methods to improve enzyme activity and stability under harsh conditions over extended periods. A typically interesting application is the immobilization of laccases, multicopper enzymes oxidizing aromatic compounds, to solid surfaces in order to develop valuable tools for the elimination of micropollutants in wastewater. Laccase of the white-rot fungus Coriolopsis polyzona has been successfully immobilized on fumed silica nanoparticles using a novel method. It consists in the sorption of the enzyme to amino-modified silica nanoparticles and the subsequent covalent cross-linking using glutaraldehyde as a homobifunctional linker. The so-produced nanoparticulate material has been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis revealing modifications of the surface structure and area during the coupling procedure. Laccase immobilization on spherical nanoparticles produced according to the method of Stöber has been shown to be much less efficient than on fumed silica nanoparticles. Long-term stability assays revealed that the novel developed method allows a drastic stabilization of the enzyme. In real wastewater, 77% of the laccase activity remained on the nanoparticles over 1month, whereas the activity of free laccase dropped to 2.5%. The activity loss on the nanoparticles resulted from partial inactivation of the immobilized enzymes and additional release into the surrounding solution with subsequent fast inactivation of the free enzymes, since almost no activity was found in the supernatant

Enzyme shielding in a soft organo-silica layer – pharma/biopharma applications

Enzymes, or biocatalysts, are specialty proteins. Like antibodies to antigens, enzymes exhibit remarkable specificity for their substrate and naturally facilitate many chemical conversions. However, the use of enzymes in the biotech industry ($2.3bn) is strongly limited by the fact that enzymes are highly sensitive like most proteins and usually not fitted to in vivo and process conditions. Many expensive genetically engineered or biosourced enzymes show remarkable properties but need to be made more robust for deployment in the health industry. We have developed a unique procedure to fit enzymes to in vivo and process conditions. The process is initiated by immobilizing any enzyme or cocktail of enzymes onto safe silica particles (Step 1 on Figure 1) and protect them by growing a nano-structured shield on the outer surface of the particle (Step 2 on Figure 1). This formulation of enzymes provides them with remarkable resistance to in vivo and process conditions, such as acidity, temperature, presence of chaotropic agents, proteases, solvents, etc. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Radio (14C)- and fluorescent-doubly labeled silica nanoparticles for biological and environmental toxicity assessment

A new and efficient synthetic route to fluorescent and 14C-double-labeled silica-based nanoparticles (NPs) is described. The synthesis has been carried out using the "oil-in-water” micro-emulsion technique. Fluorescent and radioactive labeling have been achieved entrapping labeled poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecules in the NPs. The produced particles have been analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy, photon correlation spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, scintillation counting and oxidation/combustion experiments. Fluorescence quenching experiments confirm that the label is entrapped in the particles. The results presented suggest that the silica matrix does not block the β-radiations emitted from the labeled PEG molecules entrapped in the NP

Laccases to take on the challenge of emerging organic contaminants in wastewater

The removal of emerging organic contaminants from municipal wastewater poses a major challenge unsatisfactorily addressed by present wastewater treatment processes. Enzyme-catalyzed transformation of emerging organic contaminants (EOC) has been proposed as a possible solution to this major environmental issue more than a decade ago. Especially, laccases gained interest in this context in recent years due to their broad substrate range and since they only need molecular oxygen as a cosubstrate. In order to ensure the stability of the enzymes and allow their retention and reuse, either immobilization or insolubilization of the biocatalysts seems to be the prerequisite for continuous wastewater treatment applications. The present review summarizes the research conducted on EOC transformation with laccases and presents an overview of the possible immobilization techniques. The goal is to assess the state of the art and identify the next necessary steps that have to be undertaken in order to implement laccases as a tertiary wastewater treatment process in sewage treatment plants

Design of a Biocatalytic Flow Reactor Based on Hierarchically Structured Monolithic Silica for Producing Galactooligosaccharides (GOSs)

Climate change mitigation requires the development of greener chemical processes. In this context, biocatalysis is a pivotal key enabling technology. The advantages of biocatalysis include lower energy consumption levels, reduced hazardous waste production and safer processes. The possibility to carry out biocatalytic reactions under flow conditions provides the additional advantage to retain the biocatalyst and to reduce costly downstream processes. Herein, we report a method to produce galactooligosaccharides (GOSs) from a largely available feedstock (i.e. lactose from dairy production) using a flow reactor based on hierarchically structured monolithic silica. This reactor allows for fast and efficient biotransformation reaction in flow conditions

Immobilization of an Artificial Imine Reductase within Silica Nanoparticles Improves its Performance

Silica nanoparticles equipped with an artificial imine reductase display remarkable activity towards cyclic imine- and NAD + reduction. The method, based on immobilization and protection of streptavidin on silica nanoparticles, shields the biotinylated metal cofactor against deactivation yielding over 46 000 turnovers in pure samples and 4000 turnovers in crude cellular extracts