Decolorization of practical textile industry effluents by white rot fungus Coriolus versicolor IBL-04

Textile industry discharges a vast amount of unused synthetic dyes in effluents. The discharge of these effluents into rivers and lakes leads to a reduction in sunlight penetration in natural water bodies, which, in turn, decreases both photosynthetic activity and dissolved oxygen concentration rendering it toxic to living beings. This paper describes the decolorization potential of a local white rot fungus, Coriolus versicolor IBL-04 for practical industrial effluents collected from five different textile industries of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Screening of C. versicolor IBL-04 on five effluents showed best decolorization results (36.3%) for Arzoo Textile Industry (ART) effluent in 6 days followed by Crescent Textile Industry (CRT), Itmad Textile Industry (ITT), Megna Textile Industry (MGT) and Ayesha Textile Industry (AST) effluents. Optimization of different process parameters for ART effluent decolorization by C. versicolor IBL-04 showed that manganese peroxidase (MnP) (486 U/mL) was the lignolytic enzyme present in the culture filtrates with undetectable lignin peroxidase (LiP) and laccase. The MnP synthesis and effluent decolorization could be enhanced to 725 U/mL and 84.4%, respectively, with a significant time reduction to 3 days by optimizing pH and temperature and using 1% starch as a supplementary carbon source.