African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (12), pp. 1450-1454, 18 June 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Biodegradation of penicillin-G wastewater using Phanerochate chrysosporium – An equilibrium and kinetic modeling

P. Mullai¹* and S. Vishali²

¹Department of Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar-608 002, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Department of Chemical Engineering, SRM Engineering College, SRM University, Katankulathur-603 203, Chengalpet District, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sammullai@yahoo.com.

Accepted 25 April, 2007

An attempt was made in the present study to find out the biodegradation of the penicillin-G wastewater for the various operational conditions such as, initial substrate concentrations (13000, 10000, 6000, 4000 and 2000 mg of COD/l), agitation, addition of nutrients (glucose and ammonium chloride) and biomass dosages (2, 3, 4 and 5 g) in batch reactor using immobilized cells of Phanerochate chrysospo-rium, a white rot fungi. The highest COD removal efficiency was found  at the initial substrate concentration of 2000 mg COD /l, under static condition using  4 g of biomass in the absence of nutri-ents i.e.,  carbon and nitrogen sources. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models fitted well with the equilibrium data of the process studied. It was also observed that the experimental kinetic data followed the first order rate expression.

Key words: Penicillin-G wastewater, Phanerochate chrysosporium, equilibrium, kinetic study.