Preparation of magnetic macroporous polymer sphere for biofilm immobilization and biodesulfurization

Abstract Immobilized sulfate reducing bacteria have been widely investigated in the field of bioremediation of sulfate containing wastewater. To enhance the biofilm loading and shorten the start-up stage, a series of magnetic macroporous polymer beads were prepared in this work by using a novel co-stabilized Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) template method. The effect of the addition of magnetic particles on both the morphology of the polymer support and the performance of the biofilm at the start-up stage were investigated. The results showed that the addition of magnetic particles could restrain the enrichment phenomenon of silicone and, hence, increase the loading amount of the biofilm. At the start-up stage under 3000 mg SO 4 2− ·L −1 concentration, the sulfate reducing efficiencies on the magnetic support reached a maximum of 39.90%, which was higher than that of other systems that exhibit efficiencies of approximately 30%. For the long-term stage, due to the decomposition of the ferriferous oxide, the sulfate reducing efficiencies of the biofilm on the magnetic poly(St-MTQ)HIPE (MPSMH) and poly(St-MTQ)HIPE (PSMH) supports did not show a significant difference.