Degradation and mineralization of azo dye reactive blue 222 by sequential Photo-Fenton's oxidation followed by aerobic biological treatment using white rot fungi.

A two stage sequential Photo-Fenton's oxidation followed by aerobic biological treatment using two white rot fungi P. ostreatus IBL-02 (PO) and P. chrysosporium IBL-03 (PC) was performed to check decolorization and to enhance mineralization of azo dye Reactive Blue 222 (RB222). In the first stage, selected dye was subjected to Photo-Fenton's oxidation with decolorization percentage ≈90 % which was further increased to 96.88 % and 95.23 % after aerobic treatment using two white rot fungi P. ostreatus IBL-02 (PO) and P. chrysosporium IBL-03 (PC), respectively. Mineralization efficiency was accessed by measuring the water quality assurance parameters like COD, TOC, TSS and Phenolics estimation. Reduction in COD, TOC, TSS and Phenolics were found to be 95.34 %, 90.11 %, 90.84 % and 92.22 %, respectively in two stage sequential processes. The degradation products were characterized by UV-visible and FTIR spectral techniques and their toxicity was measured. The results provide evidence that both fungal strains were able to oxidize and mineralize the selected azo dye into non-toxic metabolites.