Abstract
The fungal strain, Aspergillus niger SA1, isolated from textile wastewater sludge was screened for its decolorization ability for four different textile dyes. It was initially adapted to higher concentration of dyes (10-1,000 mg l(-1)) on solid culture medium after repeated sub-culturing. Maximum resistant level (mg l(-1)) sustained by fungal strain against four dyes was in order of; Acid red 151 (850) > Orange II (650) > Drimarene blue K2RL (550) > Sulfur black (500). The apparent dye removal for dyes was seen largely due to biosorption/bioadsorption into/onto the fungal biomass. Decolorization of Acid red 151, Orange II, Sulfur black and Drimarine blue K2RL was 68.64 and 66.72, 43.23 and 44.52, 21.74 and 28.18, 39.45 and 9.33% in two different liquid media under static condition, whereas, it was 67.26, 78.08, 45.83 and 13.74% with 1.40, 1.73, 5.16 and 1.87 mg l(-1) of biomass production under shaking conditions respectively in 8 days. The residual amount (mg l(-1)) of the three products (alpha-naphthol, sulfanilic acid and aniline) kept quite low i.e., <= n2 in case AR 151 and Or II under shaking conditions. Results clearly elucidated the role of Aspergillus niger SA1 in decolorizing/degrading structurally different dyes into basic constituents.