This study aimed to investigate the kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics of biosorption of the cationic dye rhodamine B by a low-cost biosorbent prepared from Aspergillus oryzae cells. Culture medium composition (mineral salts, nitrogen source, and carbon source) influenced removal efficiency, and dye removal increased with increasing biosorbent concentrations until a plateau was reached at 10 g L⁻¹. Temperature and dye concentration were directly related to removal, and the highest removal efficiency was obtained at 40 °C and 200 mg L⁻¹ of dye. The adsorption kinetics was best fitted to a pseudo-second-order model, and equilibrium data were well described by the Freundlich equation. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the biosorption of rhodamine B by A. oryzae cells is physical in nature, spontaneous, and more favorable at higher temperatures and dye concentrations. Overall, the results suggest that inactivated A. oryzae biomass is a promising biosorbent for the removal of cationic dyes from wastewater.

Eleven indigenous arsenic-tolerant fungi were isolated from arsenic-contaminated mine tailing and identified by molecular biology methods. Among them, Aspergillus oryzae (denoted as A. oryzae TLWK-09) had high tolerance and bioaccumulation of As(V). The maximum tolerance to As(V) concentration of A. oryzae TLWK-09 reached 5000 mg/L. As(V) bioaccumulation on A. oryzae TLWK-09 in the aqueous system was investigated under different environmental conditions such as mycelia dosage, contact time, pH, and ionic strength. Bioaccumulation data of As(V) were fitted to Langmuir model, and the maximum uptake capacity of A. oryzae TLWK-09 for As(V) was 54.12 mg/g at 301 K. The morphological structures of mycelia changed obviously under As(V) stress by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis. The analysis of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and amino groups on the fungal mycelia, which showed that these groups accounted for As(V) bioaccumulation. These results suggested that A. oryzae TLWK-09 could be an efficient and promising bioremediation material for As(V) pollution.

The textile industry often releases effluents into the environment without proper treatment or complete dye removal. Azo dyes, which are characterized by azo groups (―N═N―), are frequently used in the textile industry. Among the different wastewater treatment methods available, biological treatment has been extensively studied. The aim of the present study was to compare the biodegradation of the azo dye Direct Blue 71 by the fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Aspergillus oryzae in paramorphogenic form using a 100 μg/ml dye solution. Biodegradation tests were performed within 240 h. The absorbance values obtained with UV-VIS spectrophotometry were used to determine the absorbance ratio and the percentage of dye discoloration following the biodegradation test. FTIR analysis allowed the identification of molecular compounds in the solution before and after biodegradation. Both A. oryzae and P. chrysosporium demonstrated considerable potential regarding the biodegradation of dyes in wastewater. These results may contribute toward improving effluent treatment systems in the textile industry.

A total of three fungal isolates from samples collected at spent wash disposal area were screened for their ability to degrade melanoidin. Distillery molasses spent wash was decolorized, and its chemical oxygen demand (COD) was reduced in immobilized fungal bioreactor (IFB) in the absence of carbon and nitrogen source using fungal mycelia of Aspergillus oryzae MTCC 7691. Fungal mycelia immobilized on baggase packed in a glass column under a batch-wise mode (1) effected removal of 75.71 +/- 0.12 % color, 51.0 +/- 0.13 % biological oxygen demand (BOD), 86.19 +/- 2.56 % COD, and 49.0 +/- 0.12 % phenolic pigments of distillery spent wash up to 25 days at 30 degrees C, while free fungal mycelia resulted in removal of 63.1 +/- 0.16 % color, 27.74 +/- 0.14 % BOD, 76.21 +/- 1.62 % COD, and 37.32 +/- 0.17 % phenolic pigments of distillery spent wash using shake flask, (2) manganese peroxidase (MnP) activity was highest (1.55 +/- 0.01 U ml(-1) min(-1)) in immobilized fungi, followed by lignin peroxidase (0.65 +/- 0.01 U ml(-1) min(-1)) and laccase activity (0.9 +/- 0.01 CU ml (1) min (1)), (3) accumulative MnP activity was highly correlated with (r=0.9216) spent wash decolorization and (r=0.7282) reduction of phenolic pigments, suggesting the presence of MnP activities in bioremediation of spent wash and (4) degradation of spent wash was confirmed by high-performance thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Measurement of chlorophyll a content of Chlorella species cultivated on treated spent wash effluent obtained from immobilized fungal bioreactor was 5.16 +/- 0.71 mu g ml(-1) compared with 1.306 +/- 0.017 +/-mu g ml(-1) obtained with untreated spent wash. Thus, this work may provide a reasonable alternative for cost-effective bioremediation of distillery spent wash using immobilized A. oryzae on baggase fibers.

The present study focused on phosphorus adsorption by novel fungal conidiophores biomass in aqueous solution. Fungal Conidiophores biomass was prepared from the fungal strains Aspergillus oryzae (YFK) and Fusarium oxysporum (YVS2). The functional groups and morphology of Conidiophores Biomass (CB) from these strains were characterized by FTIR and SEM. FTIR confirms the presence of alcohol, carboxylic acid, carbon dioxide, cyclic alkene, amine, alkene, fluoro compound, and halo compound groups. Batch mode study was carried out with two CB’s such as Aspergillus oryzae CB (ACB) and Fusarium oxysporum CB (FCB) with initial concentration of phosphorus ranging from 20 to 100 mg L⁻¹. Based on the batch experiments, the adsorption kinetics (pseudo first order and pseudo second order), isotherms (Freundlich and Langmuir models), and thermodynamic (standard entropy, energy, and enthalpy) parameters were calculated. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies showed that the adsorption data well fitted with PSO kinetic model. From the isotherm results, it was found that ACB and FCB exhibited highest adsorption capacity 25.64 mg g⁻¹ and 26.32 mg g⁻¹ of phosphorus respectively at the optimal condition of pH (7), time (90 min), dose (250 mg), and room temperature (35 °C). Thermodynamics values were found to be endothermic and spontaneous in nature for phosphorus adsorption. Finally, the results suggested that the ACB and FCB are economically feasible cost-effective adsorbent for removal of phosphorus in wastewater treatment. Graphical abstract

The microbial production of fumaric acid by Rhizopus arrhizus NRRL 2582 has been evaluated using soybean cake from biodiesel production processes and very high polarity (VHP) sugar from sugarcane mills. Soybean cake was converted into a nutrient-rich hydrolysate via a two-stage bioprocess involving crude enzyme production via solid state fermentations (SSF) of either Aspergillus oryzae or R. arrhizus cultivated on soybean cake followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of soybean cake. The soybean cake hydrolysate produced using crude enzymes derived via SSF of R. arrhizus was supplemented with VHP sugar and evaluated using different initial free amino nitrogen (FAN) concentrations (100, 200, and 400 mg/L) in fed-batch cultures for fumaric acid production. The highest fumaric acid concentration (27.3 g/L) and yield (0.7 g/g of total consumed sugars) were achieved when the initial FAN concentration was 200 mg/L. The combination of VHP sugar with soybean cake hydrolysate derived from crude enzymes produced by SSF of A. oryzae at 200 mg/L initial FAN concentration led to the production of 40 g/L fumaric acid with a yield of 0.86 g/g of total consumed sugars. The utilization of sugarcane molasses led to low fumaric acid production by R. arrhizus, probably due to the presence of various minerals and phenolic compounds. The promising results achieved through the valorization of VHP sugar and soybean cake suggest that a focused study on molasses pretreatment could lead to enhanced fumaric acid production.