Detoxification of Olive Mill Wastewater Using the White Rot Fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium

Abstract

Olive mill wastewater (OMWW) is the black liquid byproduct of the olive extraction process. It isestimated that 10-30 million m3 of OMWW are produced each year. Despite that OMWW contains plantnutrients; it is considered one of the most pollutants affecting soil and water. The high phenoliccompounds found in Olive mill wastewater prevent its direct disposal into the environment. Treatment ofOMWW is very important in many European and Mediterranean countries. Current physic-chemicalprocesses are not practical in decreasing the high toxicity of OMWW. The use biological bioremediationmight provide a suitable alternative in proper treatment of the effluents. In this work the white rot fungusPhanerochaete chrysosporium was used in detoxifying Olive mill wastewater. The fungus was able togrow on undiluted OMWW. Spectrophotometric studies revealed that after two weeks of treatment, totalphenols were reduced by 60.1% compared to untreated OMWW. Interestingly, the toxicity of OMWWwas significantly reduced. Barley seeds irrigated with Olive mill wastewater treated with the fungusshowed 81.6% seed germination.Keywords: Fungi, Environment, Phenolic compounds, Pollution, Olive oil mill wastewater,Bioremediation