Degradation of Low and High Molecular Mass Fractions of Kraft E1 Effluent by Trametes Villosa

Abstract

A very efficient Trametes villosa strain was selected from a screening in our laboratories, which exhibited a high capability of bleaching effluent (E₁) biodegradation. This fungus decolorized 70–80% in 24–48h incubation time and degraded 80% of total phenol acting on E₁ effluent. Size exclusion high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed that 75% of total color can be attributed to the high-molecular mass materials (MM> 15000 Da). The change in the MM distribution during the incubation period showed evidence that both high and low molecular mass fractions were biodegraded by the fungal treatment. The HPLC analyses of the original E₁ effluent (MM< 1000 Da) revealed that four compounds were responsible for 99% of the sample composition.