The Use of Fungi in Odorous Treatment—A Review

Abstract

Most odorous compounds are toxic or hazardous for ecological environment and human health. Compare with the physical or chemical methods, the biological technologies can offer a cost effective and environment friendly alternative to odorous control. The microorganisms in the bioreactor were mainly the bacteria. But the removal efficient (RE) of pollutants by bacteria in the conditions of low moisture content and low pH seemed not so excellent. Recently, fungi were found that they could keep high activity and grew better in this condition than bacteria, and some characteristics of fungi were favor to the pollutions degradation, which showed the great potential to treat the hydrophobic compounds of the odors. Some scholars had paid their attentions in this field and did related researches. This review aimed to summarize the studies about the use of fungi in the odorous treatment and insight into the future research and development (R&D) needs of fungi in odorous control.