Optimization of lipids enzymatic hydrolysis present in swine slaughterhouse effluents

Effluents from slaughterhouses are characterized by a high concentration of oils and greases that can cause problems in conventional treatments. The fats and proteins present in effluents have low biodegradability, which represents serious problems for the biological degradation processes. The degradation of difficult pollutants in more easily degradable products can be mediated by enzymes. Enzymatic hydrolysis facilitates the biodegradation because it makes the organic material is made available as compounds of lower molecular weight, the lipids being made available in the form of fatty acids. The application of enzymes as processing aids in effluent treatment has some advantages, such as the specificity that allows control of the products, which leads to increased income generation for the non-toxic byproducts, moderate conditions of operation, cost reduction in terms and energy and equipment, making this process attractive from the point of view of environment. The objective of this work was optimizing the conditions for lipids enzymatic hydrolysis present in swine slaughterhouse effluents using lipolytic enzymes. Temperature, pH and enzyme concentration were the variables tested. The enzymes showed good activity and could therefore be used for the hydrolysis process proposed here. The optimized conditions to maximize the release of fatty acids were: temperature of 36 °C, pH 8.5 and enzyme concentration of 1.1 %, yielding fatty acids in the order of 31.50 μmol/mL for lipase and 31.25μmol/mL for phospholipase. All variables influenced the release of fatty acids, but the most significant variables were pH and enzyme concentration.