ERYTHROSINE B IN THE ENVIRONMENT. REMOVAL PROCESSES

摘要

This paper presents a comparison of the results obtained for different methods used for the decolorization of the food dye Erythrosine B. Erythrosine B is a red odorless powder used in food industry as a colloring substance. Erythrosine B, also known as E 127, consists essentially of disodium 2-(2,4,5,7-tetraiodo-6-oxido-3-oxoxanthen-9-yl) benzoate monohydrate and subsidiary coloring matters together with water, sodium chloride and sodium sulphate as the principal uncolored components. The methods considered in this paper were sorption, biodegradation and photodegradation. Sorption demonstrated good removal efficiency in the presence of low-cost activated carbon from agro-waste but the treatment increases the operation cost. Because of Erythrosine B toxicity aerobic biodegradation processes showed to be inefficient in the most studies. Considering this, Erythrosine B degradation could be performed by photodegradation process using an adequate catalyst in order to reduce the operation cost.