A Study of Immobilised Dye Degrading Bacteria on Biochar for adsorption and degradation of Congo Red and Reactive Orange 16

Wastewater from textile industries is one of the major pollutants of water body. The largest component of wastewater from textile industries is the azo dyes. Due to its carcinogenic properties, azo dyes possess a threat to environment. Immobilised dye degrading bacteria shows a high potential to degrade the azo dye. Biochar has the ability on adsorption of dye to increase the decolourisation activity. The aim of this project is to investigate the efficiency of immobilised dye degrading bacteria with different biochar on different azo dye. In this project, the adsorption and degradation of azo dye, named Congo red and Reactive Orange 16 was tested on the immobilised dye degrading bacteria with different biochar. The bacteria were immobilised with coffee ground derived biochar and coconut fronds derived biochar. Decolourization assay was conducted to determine the decolourisation ability of these immobilised dye degrading bacteria. The decolourisation assay was compared on different biochar and dyes. The result showed that the decolourisation percentage of Congo red and Reactive Orange 16 by immobilised dye degrading bacteria with coconut fronds and spent coffee ground are 95.23%, 90.93%, 86.71% and 84.36% respectively. The immobilised beads were subjected for FTIR analysis after 72 hours of decolourisation assay. The changes on the functional group of the dye which can be seen from FTIR spectra had supported the degradation of the azo dye still capable to be carried out after immobilisation.