Myco-remediation of Dairy Wastewater by Naturally Attenuated Aspergillus sp. Responsible for Sulfate Reduction

Dairy industries generate enormous volumes of waste water which are significantly rich in organic compounds; contributing to high BOD, COD and sulfates. As a mandate to ‘treat’ effluents generated by different unit operations in a dairy industry, current treatment methods rely on physico-chemical, mechanical and conventional biological interventions. This approach remains unviable because of cost intensiveness and excessive energy usage. Additionally, the significant lowering of pollution indicators remains a daunting task with inlet and outlet parameters. With these identifiable gaps, our study was aimed to screen bio-efficacious, naturally attenuated fungal isolates to lower exceeding levels of sulfate in effluents released by dairy industry. Effluent samples were collected from Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) of Jaipur Dairy, Rajasthan Dairy Co-operation Limited (RCDF), Jaipur. For mycological investigations, qualitative screening was carried out in Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) supplemented with Calcium Sulfate (CaSo4) (0.1g/L). The most promising fungal isolates belonging to Aspergillus sp. was characterized based on its cultural and microscopic characteristics. Microcosm study was conducted by supplementing Aspergillus sp. in Untreated Dairy Effluent (UDE) for a period of 7 days at Room Temperature (RT) under static conditions. Following the incubation phase, mycelial mesh (plug) was indicative of exponential fungal growth. Effluent seeded with Aspergillus sp. and abiotic controls were spinned at 5000 rpm for 15 minutes to eliminate biomass. Sulfate estimation was carried out in Cell Free Extract (CFE) of both experimental and control group. A significant reduction of 67.3% was observed (p<0.05) with respect to positive control and 8.4% when contrasted with abiotic control.