Screening of White-Rot Fungi Isolates for Decolorization of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluent and Assessment of Biodegradation and Biosorption Processes.

Ten white-rot fungal isolates were evaluated for the decolorization potential of pulp and paper mill effluent. Trametes elegans PP17-06, Pseudolagarobasidium sp. PP17-33, and Microporus sp.2 PP17-20 showed the highest decolorization efficiencies between 42 and 54% in 5 d. To reveal the mechanisms involved in decolorization and assess the long-term performance, PP17-06, which showed the highest decolorization efficiency, was further investigated. It could reduce the ADMI color scale by 63.6% in 10 d. However, extending the treatment period for more than 10 d did not significantly enhance the decolorization efficiencies. The maximum MnP activity of 3.27 U L-1 was observed on the 6 d during the biodegradation. In comparison, laccase activities were low with the maximum activity of 0.38 U L-1 (24 d). No significant LiP activities were monitored during the experiment. Dead fungal biomass showed an optimum decolorization efficiency of 44.18% in 8 d employing the biosorption mechanism. No significant changes in the decolorization efficiency were observed after that, suggesting the equilibrium status was reached. These results revealed that PP17-06 has the potential to decolorize pulp and paper mill effluent by employing both biodegradation and biosorption processes.

High Potential Decolourisation of Textile Dyes from Wastewater by Manganese Peroxidase Production of Newly Immobilised Trametes hirsuta PW17-41 and FTIR Analysis.

Coloured wastewater from the textile industry is a very serious global problem. Among 16 different white-rot fungal isolates, Trametes hirsuta PW17-41 revealed high potential for decolourisation of mixed textile dyes (Navy EC-R, Ruby S3B and Super Black G) from real industrial wastewater samples. The efficiency of dye decolourisation was evaluated using the American Dye Manufacturers' Institute (ADMI) standard methodology. The suitable support for fungal mycelium immobilisation was nylon sponges. The optimal dye decolourisation (95.39%) was achieved by using palm sugar and ammonium nitrate as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The initial pH was 5 and the agitation speed was 100 rpm at 30 °C. The ADMI values of textile dyes decreased from 2475 to 114 within two days, reducing the treatment time from seven days before optimisation. The major mechanism of dye decolourisation was biodegradation, which was confirmed by UV-visible and FTIR spectra. Manganese peroxidase (MnP) (4942 U L-1) was found to be the main enzyme during the decolourisation process at an initial dye concentration of 21,200 ADMI. The results indicated the strong potential of immobilised fungal cells to remove high concentrations of textile dyes from industrial wastewater and their potential ability to produce high MnP and laccase activities that can be used in further application.

Emerging forward osmosis and membrane distillation for liquid food concentration: A review.

As emerging membrane technologies, forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD), which work with novel driving forces, show great potential for liquid food concentration, owing to their low fouling propensity and great driving force. In the last decades, they have attracted the attention of food industry scientists in global scope. However, discussions of the FO and MD in liquid food concentration advancement, membrane fouling, and economic assessment have been scant. This review aims to provide an up-to-date knowledge about liquid food concentration by FO and MD. First, we introduce the principle and applications of FO and MD in liquid food concentration, and highlight the effect of process on liquid food composition, membrane fouling mechanism, and strategies for fouling mitigation. Besides, economic assessment of FO and MD processes is reviewed. Moreover, the challenges as well as future prospects of FO and MD applied in liquid food concentration are proposed and discussed. Comparing with conventional membrane-based or thermal-based technologies, FO and MD show outstanding advantages in high concentration rate, good concentrate quality, low fouling propensity, and low cost. Future efforts for liquid food concentration by FO and MD include (1) development of novel FO draw solution (DS); (2) understanding the effects of liquid food complex compositions on membrane fouling in FO and MD concentration process; and (3) fabrication of novel membranes and innovation of membrane module and process configuration for liquid food processing.

An overview of oil-water separation using gas flotation systems.

Oil concentration levels in municipal waste water effluent streams are stringently regulated in most parts of the world. Apart from municipal waste, stricter oil/grease discharge limits are also enforced in oil and gas sectors as large volumes of produced water is being discharged to open ocean. One of the feasible, practical and established methods to remove oil substances from waste water sources is by gas flotation. In this overview, gas flotation technologies, namely dissolved and induced flotation systems, are discussed. Physico-chemical interaction between oil-water-gas during flotation is also summarized. In addition to a brief review on design advancements in flotation systems, enhancement of flotation efficiency by using pre-treatment methods, particularly coagulation-flocculation, is also presented.

Advanced treatment of membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluents for effective wastewater reclamation.

One of the two main objectives of this work is to oxidize MBR effluents with ozone/peroxide in high pH conditions in order to improve oxidation of pharmaceuticals, which could efficiently be rejected by the nanofiltration (NF) stage. The other main objective is to effectively oxidize of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in MBR effluents in order to decrease fouling in the filtration stage. In this work, ozone/peroxide oxidation was applied to the MBR effluents in high pH conditions in order to improve the formation of OH radicals, and oxidized effluents were filtered by the NF membrane (NE90) in order to investigate fouling potentials and the removal of pharmaceuticals. Natural and synthetic wastewater samples were used as feed solutions for the MBR system, which was equipped with a U-shaped hollow fiber membrane module. The flux decline was decreased from 29% to 15% when 9 mg/L of ozone was used, the same decline was also observed when 6 mg/L ozone and hydrogen peroxide (1/1 ozone/peroxide mol ratio) were used. A further decrease in flux decline was observed when pH was adjusted to 9.00 (29% to 9%) prior to the ozone/peroxide oxidation. In most cases, the increase in the ozone dose, the addition of hydrogen peroxide and the adjustment of the pH level led to an increase in the removal of pharmaceuticals. Iopromide, TCEP and Naproxen were found to be more resistant to the oxidation when pH was increased.