Application of immobilized fungi on food efluent treatment using airlift reactor.

Depuration capacity of immobilizedPhanerochaete chrysosporiumwas tested on food effluents which showed high COD, sugar, and nitrogen concentration. Comparative study in airlift reactor and agitated flasks was performed to determine an effective depuration treatment with suspended and immobilized biomass into alginate spheres. While enzymetic production was analyzed in these sytems in order to evaluate influence of the immobilization micro-organism, effluent composition, and aeration mechanism. In addition, the use of seed lettuce allowed evaluating the quality and effectiveness of the studied effluent treatment system. In particular, all tests showed that COD and color of the effluent was reduced by airlift cultures. Treatment achieved a decline in 85% of COD in 120 h. While experiments with 33 PCU color showed high efficiency (100%) in decolourization period of 5 h. Maximum laccase production was mainly found in airlift system with suspended biomass, whereas manganese peroxidase was detected on immobilized micro-organism. Toxicity tests revealed that treated food effluent was not phytotoxic; conversely effluent contains sufficiently high concentrations of nutrients to ensure the germination and lettuce growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]