Biodecolorization of Textile Effluents by Autochthonous Fungi

Textile effluents contain different kinds of chemical dyes and many mutagenic and carcinogenic substances. Discharge of these effluents into terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems causes harmful effects. In this research, decolorization of a textile effluent by nineteen different strains of fungi was investigated. Removal activity of dyes was in order of Aspergillus > Rhizopus > Fuzarium > Penicillium > Saccharomyces. The selected fungal strain was capable of decolorizing textile effluent at original pH of effluent (8.5- 9) by adding 0.6 and 0.2 g/L of sucrose and NH4Cl as additional carbon and nitrogen sources respectively at 30ᵒC. 98 % of dyes were absorbed from effluent during the exponential growth phase in the presence of a biodegradable substrate such as sucrose under shake flask conditions. Dyes strongly bound to the fungal biomass required extraction with methanol for their removal. The dyes pigment yellow (PY 74) and reactive blue (RB 38) were totally decolorized after 6 days at initial concentration of 250 ppm by terrestrial Aspergillus niger.