BIORREMEDIAtTION OF WHEY USING MICROALGA-FUNGUS CONSORPTIUM
Consortium, whey, biological treatment, mycoremediation, phycoremediation.
The dairy industry is one of the main segments of the food sector due to its expressive and continuous growth. However, its production process generates a by-product known as whey that has a high polluting potential, and therefore its disposal is considered a huge problem for it. As regards, the physicochemical treatments commonly applied to this type of effluent are highly expensive, which makes their use unfeasible, especially for small and medium-sized industries. Bioremediation comes as a possibility to overcome this obstacle and to promote efficiently and with a lower associated cost the total or partial removal of pollutants found in whey. In this sense, this work aims to evaluate the use of fine fungi (Penicillium oxalicum Currie and Cunninghamella echinulata) and microalgae (Tetradesmus sp.) in the treatment of this whey effluent as well as to prove the advantages of using the fungi-microalgae consortium. Therefore, the remediation process was studied using 4 concentrations of whey (0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 4%) and 3 inoculum systems (fungus, microalgae, and the consortium) under constant agitation and lighting conditions. Whey was initially characterized by high levels of chemical demand for oxygen (52.886 mg O2.L-1), total nitrogen (1.563 mg.L-1), and total phosphorus (663.5 mg. L-1 in terms of phosphate). The preliminary results for the treatment process showed a superiority of the consortium in relation to the systems with the separated species, mainly when the effluent was used in a higher concentration. The remediation promoted by symbiosis reached removal percentages of up to 86% for COD, 96% for FT, and 77% for NT. In addition, it was noted that the generation of biomass also met this trend, reaching values around 550 mg.L-1 when using the CN fungus in consortium with the microalgae and the medium with 4% of whey. As a result, the microalgae-fungus consortium presents itself as a potential alternative to promote the remediation of whey and also increase the production of biomass.