Open AccessMicrobial Biotreatment of Actual Textile Wastewater in a Continuous Sequential Rice Husk Biofilter and the Microbial Community Involved
Author(s) -
Jörgen Forss,
Markus V. Lindh,
Jarone Pinhassi,
Ulrika Welander
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0170562
Subject(s) - biodegradation , wastewater , husk , biofilter , microbial population biology , pulp and paper industry , sewage treatment , phanerochaete , microbial biodegradation , pseudomonas , textile , chemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , waste management , environmental chemistry , environmental science , bacteria , microorganism , environmental engineering , botany , ecology , materials science , genetics , engineering , composite material
Textile dying processes often pollute wastewater with recalcitrant azo and anthraquinone dyes. Yet, there is little development of effective and affordable degradation systems for textile wastewater applicable in countries where water technologies remain poor. We determined biodegradation of actual textile wastewater in biofilters containing rice husks by spectrophotometry and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The indigenous microflora from the rice husks consistently performed >90% decolorization at a hydraulic retention time of 67 h. Analysis of microbial community composition of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene fragments in the biofilters revealed a bacterial consortium known to carry azoreductase genes, such as Dysgonomonas , and Pseudomonas and the presence of fungal phylotypes such as Gibberella and Fusarium . Our findings emphasize that rice husk biofilters support a microbial community of both bacteria and fungi with key features for biodegradation of actual textile wastewater. These results suggest that microbial processes can substantially contribute to efficient and reliable degradation of actual textile wastewater. Thus, development of biodegradation systems holds promise for application of affordable wastewater treatment in polluted environments.