Decoloursation and degradation of reactive orange 16 (RO16) dye by co-immobilized dye degrading microbe and coconut fronds biochar

Industrial wastewater is one of the main sources of environmental pollution. Textile industry was one of the industries that contributes towards environmental pollution. This is because the textile industry utilized large quantities of dye and discharge the dye as wastewater. The effluent from the textile industry can affect human health and also the environment. This is due to the dye compound in textile wastewater was proved to be carcinogenic. The dye compound that usually used is azo dye. There are several methods to treat wastewater such as physical, chemical and biological method. The biological method is used as this method is low cost and can reduce the sludge production after the decolourisation treatment. In this project, dye degrading microbes and coconut fronds biochar were immobilized using sodium alginate. This is to identify the efficiency of immobilized dye degrading microbes with coconut fronds to decolourize and degrade the azo dye which is Reactive Orange 16. Decolourisation activity was compared with the three controls which are alginate beads, coconut fronds biochar beads and immobilized dye degrading microbes. The result showed the percentage of decolourisation using immobilized dye degrading microbe with coconut fronds biochar was 79.29% which is the highest percentage of decolourisation. The immobilized dye degrading microbes with coconut fronds biochar and three controls were subjected for FTIR analysis. The sample was analyzed every 24 hours for 72 hours after decolourisation assay. The changes on the functional groups in Reactive Orange 16 that can be observed from FTIR spectra suggesting possible degradation of azo RO16.