Biological treatment of textile dyes by agar-agar immobilized consortium in a packed bed reactor

The decolorization of Acid Maroon V was investigated using bacterial consortium EDPA containing Enterobacter dissolvens AGYP1 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa AGYP2 immobilized in different entrapment matrices. The consortium displayed 96% removal of dye (100 mg/l) within 6 h when immobilized in agar-agar. Under optimum concentrations of agar-agar (3.0% w/v) and cell biomass (0.9 g% w/v), the consortium displayed decolorization for 18 successive batches of Acid Maroon V and also decolorized 14 other different textile dyes. A packed bed reactor under batch mode showed 89% decolorization of dye after 56 repetitive cycles. Under continuous flow mode, maximum color removal was achieved with bed length of 36 cm, hydraulic retention time of 2.66 h, and dye concentration of 100 mg/l. Additionally, the reactor decolorized relatively higher concentrations (100-2000 mg/l) of dye. The synthetic dye wastewater containing five textile dyes was decolorized 92% with 62% COD reduction using an immobilized consortium.