Decolorization of colored wastewaters with Turquoise Blue dye by the native Colombian fungus Leptosphaerulina sp. - Influence of operational parameters

Abstract

Synthetic dyes are highly stable, offer a wide range of colors, and have easy industrial applications. Nevertheless, dyes become a problem in aqueous environments due to their long permanence and low biodegradability. White-rot fungi are useful to degrade dyes through their ligninolytic enzymes and/or biosorption. This work evaluated the effect of 2,5-dimethylaniline, glucose, ammonium tartrate, copper sulfate, pH, and temperature on the degradation of Turquoise Blue (TB) dye in aqueous solutions by Leptosphaerulina sp. (Colombian native fungus). Assays were developed applying a response surface experimental design, which found that the ammonium tartrate and pH are the most influential variables on TB removal. Leptosphaerulina sp. decolorizes aqueous solutions with TB (99%, at day 8), mainly through sorption (89%). Therefore, one of the significant findings from this study is that the Leptosphaerulina sp. biomass is a promising alternative as biosorbent, in comparison to physical-chemical traditional methods, for treating wastewaters polluted with dyes