DEGRADATION OF LOW AND HIGH-MOLECULAR-MASS FRACTIONS OF KRAFT E-1 EFFLUENT BY TRAMETES VILLOSA

A very efficient Trametes villosa strain was selected from a screening in our laboratories, which exhibited a high capability of bleaching e ffluent (E-1) biodegradation. This fungus decolorized 70-80% in 24-48h incubation time and degraded 80% of total phenol acting on E-1 efflue nt. Size exclusion high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed t hat 75% of total color can be attributed to the high-molecular mass ma terials (MM> 15000 Da). The change in the MM distribution during the i ncubation period showed evidence that both high and low molecular mass fractions were biodegraded by the fungal treatment. The HPLC analyses of the original E-1 effluent ( MM< 1000 Da) revealed that four compou nds were responsible for 99% of the sample composition.