Biotreatment of Colored Effluents using Immobilized Fungi in Reactor System

Increasing environmental pollution due to rapid industrial development is one of the major problems, faced by planet Earth. The textile industry releases about 10-15% of the dye that finds its way into the waste-water. Azo-dyes constitute the largest and versatile class of synthetic dyes used in tex

Project Title

Biotreatment of Colored Effluents using Immobilized Fungi in Reactor System

Project Area of Specialization

Biomedical Engineering

Project Summary

Increasing environmental pollution due to rapid industrial development is one of the major problems, faced by planet Earth. The textile industry releases about 10-15% of the dye that finds its way into the waste-water. Azo-dyes constitute the largest and versatile class of synthetic dyes used in textile dyeing and other industrial applications. Hence, they constitute one of the major classes of environmental pollutants.

The continuous discharge of these toxic dyes into water bodies may significantly affect the photosynthetic activity of aquatic flora by reducing the light penetration, intensity and may also be toxic to aquatic life. Azo-dyes are known to be highly toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic in living organisms. Therefore, it is necessary to remove them from the industrial waste-waters.

While there are limited options to remove these dyes from the environment, decolorization of dyes by fungi present in waste-waters is turning into a promising alternative. It can replace present treatment processes, such as chemical or physical which are ineffective and results in the release of toxic chemicals in to populated areas.

Present study is aimed to isolate indigenous fungal strains from the textile effluent(s) and to investigate their dye-degradation abilities under various cultural conditions. Further studies will focus on the designing and development of lab-scale bioreactor for the treatment of dye containing effluent by using pure cultures of fungal isolates as well as immobilized fungal strains; and to demonstrate the effect of various growth conditions on degrading potentials of fungal isolates.

Project Objectives

·         To isolate fungal strains from the dye(s) contaminated industrial effluent(s).

·         To investigate the dye degradation abilities of the isolated strains of fungi.

·         To investigate the best physico-chemical parameters (cultural conditions) for dye- decolorization and degradation abilities of fungal isolates.

·         To determine the degradation of dye(s) by pure- and mixed-cultures of fungi.

·         To design a lab-scale bioreactor for the treatment of textile effluent(s)

Project Implementation Method

• To isolate the fungi from dye(s) contaminated effluent
• To screen and to estimate the dye decolorization ability of isolated fungal strain 
• To study the effect of environmental and nutritional factors for growth and dye- decolorization potential of indigenously isolated fungal strains.
• To design a bioreactor for the degradation of textile-dye(s) effluent by fungal consortium 
•  To design a lab-scale bioreactor-system that can sustain the production of high-level of enzymes for long periods together with microorganisms under controlled growth conditions 

Benefits of the Project

 there are limited options to remove these dyes from the environment, decolorization of dyes by fungi present in waste-waters is turning into a promising alternative. It can replace present treatment processes, such as chemical or physical which are ineffective and results in the release of toxic chemicals in to populated areas.

Present study is aimed to isolate indigenous fungal strains from the textile effluent(s) and to investigate their dye-degradation abilities under various cultural conditions. Further studies will focus on the designing and development of lab-scale bioreactor for the treatment of dye containing effluent by using pure cultures of fungal isolates as well as immobilized fungal strains; and to demonstrate the effect of various growth conditions on degrading potentials of fungal isolates.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Among many engineering disciplines, textile-engineering has direct connections with environmental aspect to be explicitly and abundantly considered. The main reason is that textile industries are one of the key water and chemical intensive industries that consume water and chemicals extensively for wet processing of textile dyes. Approximately 10,000 different types of dyes are commercially available and over 0.7 million tons of synthetic-dyes are produced annually, worldwide. Out of this massive quantity, around 10-15% of the dye stuffs reaches environment through the industrial effluent from manufacturing and processing activities (Khaled et al., 2009). The disposal of these wastes into receiving water causes damage to the environment. Dyes may significantly affect photosynthetic activity in aquatic habitat because of the reduced light penetration and some of its components may also be toxic to aquatic life due to the presence of aromatics, metals, chlorides and other harmful compounds Hence, textile dyes, constitute a major source of environmental pollution.Textile dyes are classified as azo, diazo, cationic, basic, anthroquinone base and metal complex dyes based on the nature of their chemical structure. Synthetic-dyes such as azo-dyes, xanthene dyes and anthroquinone dyes are very toxic to living organisms . Azo- dyes are the largest group of dyes which are extensively used in textile, paper, food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Azo-dyes are characterized by the presence of one or more azo groups which are responsible for their coloration and when such a bond is broken, the compound loses its color. They are the largest and the most versatile class of dyes, and have structural properties that are not easily degradable under natural conditions and are typically removed from water by conventional waste-water system. Azo-dyes are designed to resist the chemical and microbial attacks and remain stable in light and during washing. Many are carcinogenic and may trigger allergic reactions in man. It is estimated that 10% of the dye used in textile-processing does not bind to the fiber and released to the environment. 

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Health

Other Industries

Medical

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Clean Water and Sanitation

Required Resources

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