S. SURYANARAYANA RAJU AND BEZAWADA MANI KUMAR
Abstract
Wastewater discharges from several industries originate severe detrimental effects to the environment and leads to imbalance of bio-systems. Azo compounds are extensively being used as dyes in carpet and textile industries, the discharges from these industries leads to the detrimental effects. Conventional technological methods for the removal of dye stuffs found less economical. Biodegradation researchers have become increasingly interested to macerate azo compounds by applying suitable microbial treatment. This paper is aimed to study the efficacy of free cells of a microorganism, Halobacterium Cutirubrum for the decolorization and degradation of a few azo compounds, Methyl Red (MR), Methyl Orange (MO) and Congo Red (CR) from aqueous solutions. The experimental data evidences that the degradation of azo compounds is highly possible with the selected microbial mass and is structural dependant. A suitable mechanism for the degradation path of azo compounds is suggested. The influence of various factors viz., pH, initial concentration of biomass and external additives on the degradation were verified for the optimization of the process.