African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp.620-630, December 2003

ISSN 1684-5315  © 2003 Academic Journals

Review

Utilization of fungi for biotreatment of raw wastewaters

COULIBALY Lacina¹*, GOURENE Germain¹, AGATHOS N Spiros²

¹Laboratoire d’Environnement et de Biologie Aquatique (LEBA), UFR-Sciences et Gestion de l’Environnement, Université d’Abobo-Adjamé, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire

²Unit of Bioengineering, Catholic University of Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 2 Bte 19, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Corresponding author. E-mail: lacina91@hotmail.com. Phone: 00 (225) 07 49 71 53.

Accepted 8 December 2003

Fungal biomasses are capable of treating metal-contaminated effluents with efficiencies several orders of magnitude superior to activated carbon (F-400) or the industrial resin Dowex-50. Additionally, fungal biomasses are susceptible to engineering improvements and regeneration of their capabilities. With regard to organic pollutants, excessive nutrients and dyes, fungi can remove them from wastewaters, leading to a decrease in their toxicities. However, the detoxification rates seem to be dependent on media and culture conditions. The postreatement by anaerobic bioprocesses of effluents that have been pretreated with fungi can lead to higher biogas than the original effluents. In addition to the degradation of organic pollutants, fungi produce added-value products such as enzymes (LiP, MnP, Lacc, amylase, etc.) and single-cell protein (SCP). Most research on fungal capacities to purify polluted effluents has been performed on a laboratory scale, hence there is a need to extend such research to pilot scale and to apply it to industrial processes.

Key words: Wastewaters, effluents, fungi, biodegradation, biosorption, decolourisation, value-added treatment.