Sugar beet molasses vinasse is a high-strength distillery wastewater. It contains colored substances which significantly affect the degree of pollution and toxicity of vinasse. This study aimed to optimize the medium composition and the process condition of sugar beet molasses vinasse decolorization by Lactobacillus plantarum MiLAB393. The research was conducted in two stages: the shake-fl ask stage in the 250 cm ³ Erlenmeyer flasks and the batch experiments in the 5 dm ³ working volume stirred-tank bioreactor. During the study, the concentrations of glucose and yeast extract were optimized using experimental design of experiments (DOE). The influences of the initial value of pH and pH control, temperature, stirrer speed and glucose concentration on decolorization were tested. The highest color reduction of 24.1% was achieved for an experiment in which 24.93 g/dm ³ of glucose was added to the medium and stirrer speed was 200 rpm. This efficiency of 30% v/v sugar beet molasses vinasse decolorization was obtained at non-controlled pH 6.0 and at 35.8°C. It was found that pH control determines vinasse decolorization. When the pH was controlled, decolorization did not exceed 9%. The glucose and yeast extract concentration and the stirrer speed have a great influence on the process. Changes in these parameters may increase biomass growth while decreasing the decolorization.

In the present study, the enrichment and isolation of textile effluent decolorizing bacteria were carried out in wheat bran (WB) medium. The isolated bacterium Providencia rettgeri strain HSL1 was then tested for decolorization of textile effluent in consortium with a dyestuff degrading fungus Aspergillus ochraceus NCIM 1146. Decolorization study suggests that A. ochraceus NCIM 1146 and P. rettgeri strain HSL1 alone re moves only 6 and 32% of textile effluent American Dye Manufacturing Institute respectively in 30 h at 30 ±0.2°C of microaerophilic incubation, while the fungal-bacterial consortium does 92% ADMI removal within the same time period. The fungal-bacterial consortium exhibited enhanced decolorization rate due to the induction in activities of catalytic enzymes laccase (196%), lignin peroxidase (77%), azoreductase (80%) and NADH-DCIP reductase (84%). The HPLC analysis confirmed the biodegradation of textile effluent into various metabolites. Detoxification studies of textile effluent before and after treatment with fungal-bacterial consortium revealed reduced toxicity of degradation metabolites. The efficient degradation and detoxification by fungal-bacterial consortium pre-grown in agricultural based medium thus suggest a promising approach in designing low-cost treatment technologies for textile effluent.

The role of fungi in the treatment of wastewater has been extensively researched. Many genera of fungi have been employed for the dye decolourization either in living or dead form. In this study, the removal of an acidic dye, Indigo Carmine (IC), from an aqueous solution by biosorption on dead fungus, Pleurotusostreatus, was investigated. The effects of contact time, initial dye concentration, amount of dead biomass, agitation rate and initial pH on dye removal have been determined. Experimental results show that an increase in the amount of dead biomass positively affected the dye removal. The highest removal was obtained at 150-200 rpm. Slightly lower removing activities were found at lower agitation rates. The dye adsorption effi ciency was not affected by pH except minor variation in the pH of 2-8. Color removal was observed to occur rapidly within 60 minutes. The removal of dye by dead biomass of P. ostreatus was clearly dependent on the initial dye concentration of the solution. Dye removal was reduced from 93% to 64% as concentration was increased from 50 to 500 mg/L Indigo Carmine. This study showed that it was possible to remove textile dyes by dead biomass of P. ostreatus.