Decolorization, degradation and detoxification of carcinogenic sulfonated azo dye methyl orange by newly developed biofilm consortia

Metabolites of azo dyes are often carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic and recalcitrant in nature. In this study, four biofilm consortia such as C1 (Vitreoscilla sp. ENSG301, Acinetobacter lwoffii ENSG302, Klebsiella pneumoniae ENSG303 and Pseudomonas fluorescens ENSG304), C2 (Escherichia coli ENSD101, Enterobacter asburiae ENSD102 and E. ludwigii ENSH201), C3 (E. asburiae ENSD102, Vitreoscilla sp. ENSG301 and Bacillus thuringiensis ENSW401), and C4 (E. coli ENSD101, E. ludwigii ENSH201 and B. thuringiensis ENSW401) were applied to degrade and detoxify methyl orange (MO), a carcinogenic, sulfonated mono azo dye, used in textile dyeing industry worldwide. The consortia of C1, C2, C3 and C4 showed 97.30, 98.75, 99.51 and 99.29% decolorization, respectively in yeast extract peptone (YEP) broth containing 200 mg L−1 MO within 60 h…