Fungal biomass from Rhizomucor pusillus as adsorbent of chromophores from a bleach plant effluent

Biomass of the mucoralean fungus Rhizomucor pusillus was examined as adsorb ent of colour from a bleach plant effluent. Strong colour adsorption was ob served in the first few hours of effluent treatment: 43 and 48% of colour b eing removed after 2 and 8 h, respectively. It appeared that the effluent c ontained a fraction of coloured compounds (approximately 50% of total) whic h was resistant to biosoption. R. pusillus could grow and tolerate temperat ures of up to 55 degrees C and retain 85% of its decolouring abilities at 5 5 degrees C as compared to 30 degrees C. For comparative purposes, activate d carbon, a strong anion exchanger, a strong cation exchanger, chitin and c hitosan were investigated as decolouring agents of bleach plant effluent. T he possibility of complete regeneration of biomass and reuse on effluent wa s demonstrated. Only partial restoration of the decolouring activities of t he commercial physico-chemical adsorbents was obtained, suggesting chemisor ption of coloured compounds onto the sorbent material. Under the conditions used in this study, the following descending order of colour removal from bleach plant effluent was established: biomass (51%) > strong anion exchang er (48%) > activated carbon (37%) > chitosan (34%) > chitin (7%) > strong c ation exchanger (4%). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.