Employment of collective physical pretreatment and immobilization of Actinomucor biomass for prospective crystal violet remediation efficiency

Abstract

AbstractIndustrialization and urbanization have increased the number of industries that utilize colors and their wastewater, contributing to the global pollution catastrophe. Recently, wastewater treatment has relied on expensive, energy-inefficient, and limited-flexibility physico-chemical processes. This study sought a low-cost, efficient method of removing crystal violet (CVD). We created a statistical approach to choose the best practice by immobilizing physically prepared Actinomucor elegans AUMC15946 biomass. The immobilized cells displayed an enhanced CVD removal (80.3%) than the free cells (66.2%). The Box-Behnken design (BBD) was utilized at three physical pretreatment parameters (heat, UV radiation, and gamma ray) for the first time to explore and maximize the positive impact of physical parameters on the immobilized fungus efficiency for potent crystal violet removal. The maximum CVD removal (96.4%) was achieved at the following optimum conditions (45 °C of heat treatment, 20 min of UV exposure, and 300 Gy of gamma irradiation). The toxicity of the treated CVD compared to the untreated one was also evaluated via three different protocols (phytotoxicity, microbial toxicity, and cytotoxicity). The treated CVD has no any adverse effect on seed germination. Similarly, the treated dye revitalized the growth of Escherichia coli cells and two normal cell lines, epithelial breast MCF-12F and fibroblast BJ-1, compared to the untreated dye. Thus, the physically pretreated and immobilized biomass of Actinomucor is a new and potent candidate that could be applied in dye bioremediation practices.