Integrated process of fungal membrane bioreactor and photocatalytic membrane reactor for the treatment of industrial textile wastewater

In this study, fungal membrane bioreactor (FMBR) and semiconductor photocatalytic membrane reactor (PMR) were used in order to test the efficiency of integrated fungal biodegradation and photocatalytic degradation of textile wastewater from reactive washing processes. It was found that color removal and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction efficiencies were 88% and 53% for photocatalytic degradation, respectively. TiO2 and ZnO were tested as semiconductor catalysts in the PMR and TiO2 showed better efficiencies than ZnO for both color and COD removal. However, it was attained that color removal and COD reduction efficiencies were about 56% and 60% for fungal biodegradation using Phatterochaete chrysosporium, respectively. Moreover, integrated system in which photocatalytic degradation was employed as a post-treatment application after fungal biodegradation process achieved high removal efficiencies for color and COD removal as 93% and 99%, respectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.