The study investigates the ability of fungus Phanerochaete sp. ISTL01 for biosorption of color from landfill leachate. Batch mode experiments were conducted to study the effects of pH, temperature, adsorbent dose, contact time and initial leachate concentration on biosorption. Maximum biosorption capacity was determined as 17.73 mg g-1 of biomass. Equilibrium isotherms and kinetics were further studied. The biosorption data were found to fit well to the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The value of activation energy suggested that chemisorption mechanism was involved. Biosorption efficiency was also evaluated by the Methyltetrazolium (MTT) assay for cytotoxicity and alkaline comet assay in HepG2 human hepato-carcinoma cells. The fungus reduced toxicity as shown by 1.3-fold increase in MTT EC50 and 1.5- and 1.1-fold reduction in Tail moment and Olive tail moment, respectively, after 12 h biosorption. The fungus showed good biosorption characteristics in terms of contaminant-level reduction per unit mass of adsorbent, process kinetics and toxicity reduction, envisaging its application in leachate treatment.
Keywords: Landfill leachate; biosorption; fungi; isotherm; toxicity reduction.