Full Length Research Paper

Up-flow immobilized fungal Column Reactor for the Treatment of Anthraquinone dye Drimarene blue K₂RL

Muhammad Faisal Siddiqui¹*, Saadia Andleeb², Naeem Ali², Pir Bux Ghumro² and Safia Ahmed²

¹Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

²Department of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: send2biotech@yahoo.com. Tel.: + 92-3339017644.

Accepted 7 August, 2009

   Abstract

This research work is on the decolorization of a reactive anthraquinone dye Drimarene blue (Db) K₂RL, which is known for its markedly usage in textile industry. Due to poor adsorbability to textile fiber, it has a higher exhaustion rate in wastewater. The main objective of our research work was to evaluate the potential of an Up-flow Column reactor (UFCR) (13x1.7^//) containing the fungal strain, Aspergillus niger SA1 (immobilized on support material Scotch-Brite^TM) for the decolorization of a dye, Db K₂RL, in simulated textile effluent. Different concentrations of dye in the effluent were treated in the reactor for 24 h, with a flow rate of 10 mL^-1 at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 h. Using anoxic UFCR, decolorization of the effluent was observed maximum, that is, 94.26% at 10 ppm of dye; however, it reduced to 58.51% at 300 ppm of dye. A trend towards increase (≤ 15%) in decolorization of effluent was noted, when the effluent was aerated prior to treatment. Recycling of the effluent containing dye increased the decolorization (85% at 130 ppm of dye; 66% at 500 ppm of dye), however, further recycling decreased the rate of decolorization, which might be due to desorption by the immobilized fungus. The results of these findings providing important insights into the development of effective treatment technology for bioremediation of textile dyes.

Key words: Drimarene blue K₂RL, Aspergillus niger SA1, immobilized, up-flow column reactor.