Influence of Carrier Structure and Physicochemical Factors on Immobilisation of Fungal Laccase in Terms of Bisphenol A Removal

Abstract

Laccase from Pleurotus ostreatus was immobilised on porous Purolite® carriers and amino-functionalised ultrafiltration membranes. The results indicated a correlation between the carrier structure and the activity of laccase immobilised thereon. The highest activity was obtained for carriers characterised by a small particle size and a larger pore diameter (the porous carriers with an additional spacer (C2 and C6) and octadecyl methacrylate beads with immobilised laccase activity of 5.34 U/g, 2.12 U/g and 7.43 U/g, respectively. The conditions of immobilisation and storage of immobilised laccase were modified to improve laccase activity in terms of bisphenol A transformation. The highest laccase immobilisation activity was obtained on small bead carriers with a large diameter of pores incubated in 0.1 M phosphate buffer pH 7 and for immobilisation time of 3 h at 22 °C. The immobilised LAC was stable for four weeks maintaining 80–90% of its initial activity in the case of the best C2, C6, and C18 carriers. The immobilised laccase transformed 10 mg/L of BPA in 45% efficiency and decreased its toxicity 3-fold in the Microtox tests. The effectiveness of BPA transformation, and the legitimacy of conducting this process due to the reduction of the toxicity of the resulting reaction products have been demonstrated. Reusability of immobilised LAC has been proven during BPA removal in 10 subsequent batches.