Mycoremediation of Sewage Treatment Plant Water by Mycofiltration Using Fungal Mycelia

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the physicochemical parameters and heavy metal contamination in the effluent of Jaganpur sewage treatment plant (STP), Dayalbagh, Agra India. Majority of the nearby farmers have access to use STP effluent in irrigation purposes for growing edible crops. To check the quality of irrigation water, substantial physicochemical parameters according to Indian Standards (IS-Reaffirmed 2002/2003) analysed to calculate Sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and Residual sodium carbonate (RSC). Estimation of the heavy metal pollution index (HPI) and metal quality index (MQI) were determined in the STP effluent with an Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and tested against certified standards. According to the results, the high value of SAR (range 16.27±2.11 to 12.35±1.62) and RSC (range 6.27±1.6 to 1.33±4.33) in STP effluent exceeded the permissible limit for irrigation purposes. On the other hand, HPI and MQI values (188.2 and 1.89, respectively) show high metal contamination during 12 months of data recorded in a year (2017), mainly due to industrial and domestic wastewater being unable to treat properly in the sewage treatment plant at Jaganpur. newlineHence, this study was proposed to evaluate the myco-remediation of heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria through myco-filtration technique. Four different Edible mushrooms species were cultivated (Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus florida, Pleurotus djamor and Calocybe indica) for the preparation of Mycofilter and subjected for antibacterial activity against six pathogenic bacteria procured from MTCC (Bacillus subtilis MTCC 441, Bacillus fusiformis MTCC 9611, Enterobacter aerogenes MTCC 7325, Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 8165, Proteus vulgaris MTCC 1771 and Pseudomonas fluorescens MTCC 2269). The findings of the research revealed the remediation efficiency of the Mycofilter inoculated with selected mushroom species to reduce heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria concentration in the synthetic run-off water. According to the results obtained, significant reduction was observed in the heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria concentration. Thus, the current studies clearly state the application of mycoremediation under run-off model flow conditions provides a low cost and eco-friendly method for the treatment of the toxic heavy metals including pathogenic bacteria. newline newline