Removal of pollutants by mycelium colonized sawdust

Abstract

Slaughterhouses generate wastewater daily and often discharge it to the environment. Many lack wastewater treatment systems, due to such systems' typically high cost and technological demands. In this study slaughterhouse wastewater was filtered through columns of mycelium – Pleurotus ostreatus – grown on sawdust substrates of different particle sizes. The columns' pollutant removal efficiencies were evaluated for color, turbidity, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total phosphorus. The best color (75%), BOD (88%) and total nitrogen (86%) removal efficiencies were recorded with 2.36 mm particle size and 9 cm depth. Electrical conductivity removal efficiency was best with 2.36 mm particle size but 3 cm bed depth. The study showed that particle size has a significant effect on physiochemical pollutant removal by mycelium-colonized sawdust systems.