Iranian Journal of

Backgrounds and Objectives: Reactive dyestuff has potential of toxicity, carcinogenesis and mutagenesis for mammals and aquatic organisms. The current physical and chemical methods such as adsorption, coagulation, precipitation, filtration and ... can been used for removing of dyestuff. Biological treatment which is effective and economic for decontamination of dyestuff wastewaters was preferred because of limitation and difficulty of physicochemical methods. In order to investigate the trend of pollution reduction of color compounds, ability of Remazol Black-B dyestuff removal from aqueous medium by bacterial consortium under anoxic conditions was studied.
Materials and Methods: The mix culture of bacteria from textile industries activated sludge was enriched in luria broth medium containing RB-B dyestuff as a carbon source. Then biodegradation was assessed in 4 batch reactors. Microbial population of bacterial and decolorization quantities of samples were detected by MPN and UV-Vis spectrophotometer.
Results: Decolorization efficiency by the bacterial consortium was obtained more than 99% for 50 and 250 mg/L concentrations in 72 and 144 h (3 and 6 days) respectively, while for the initial concentration of 500 mg/L was 98.1in 240 h (10 days) of biodegradation period. Dyestuff reduction rate after completed removal was about 0.69, 1.74,2 mg/L/h for initial concentration of 50, 250, 500 mg/L respectively.
Conclusion: Results showed that Alcaligenes denitrificans and Alcaligenes xylosoxidans bacteria
which were isolated from activated sludge have good potential of RB-B dyestuff removal and this removal is depending on primary concentration of dye. Removal efficiency increased as primary concentration went up.