Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation

Abstrait

Aerobic Treatment of Handmade Paper Industrial Effluents by White Rot Fungi

Shweta Kulshreshtha, Nupur Mathur and Pradeep Bhatnagar

Modernization of handmade paper industries has led to increase in production capacity for fulfilling demand. This also leads to the use of chemicals and dyes to make attractive and colourful papers. These industries recycle white and coloured cotton rags procured from textile industries. After processing and making paper, these industries discharge large amount of effluent in nearby water sources and deteriorate quality of water. Therefore, it is an urgent need to treat waste water in order to reduce the effect on the human beings as well as on the environment. The present study deals with physicochemical and genotoxicological analysis of Large Scale Handmade Paper industrial (LS-HMP) and Small Scale Handmade Paper industrial (SS-HMP) effluents before and after treating them with White Rot Fungi (WRF) in nutrient amended and non-amended condition. SS-HMP and LS-HMP were found to possess basic pH i.e. 7.54 and 8 respectively. These industrial effluents were found to possess colour revealed by 11293.3 (SS-HMP) and 11880 (LS-HMP) colour units and high COD revealed by 1132.6mg/l (SS-HMP) and 12371.7mg/l (LS-HMP), on initial day which reduced significantly to the safe discharge limits by white rot fungi. Similarly, basepair and frameshift mutagenicity were reduced significantly on treatment. Among all WRF, P. chrysosporium was found to be equally effective in both nutrient amended and non-amended condition in reducing all parameters of SS-HMP and LS-HMP effluent. Thus, P. chrysosporium can be used for the treatment of handmade paper industrial effluent without nutrient supplementation