Decolorization of olive mill waste-waters by free and immobilized Phanerochaete chrysosporium cultures. Effect of the high-molecular-weight polyphenols.

This paper describes the decolorization and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of olive mill waste-waters (OMW) by Phanerochaete chrysosporium grown in agitated submerged cultures. When P. chrysosporium was cultivated in the form of pellet, no decolorization of crude OMW was observed. Decolorization occurred only after removing by ultrafiltration, the high-mol-wt (HM) polyphenolic fraction (> 60 kDa). The use of high lignin peroxidase (LiP) producing medium yielded the highest levels of OMW decolorization and COD removal. In this case, extensive depolymerization and subsequent accumulation of phenolics with intermediates molecular weight were observed. Furthermore, increasing the concentration of the HM fraction decreased the color and COD removals. The decolorizing activity was lost when the concentration of the HM fraction reached 25% (v/v). Consequently, LiP activity was found to be completely inhibited in the presence of HM fraction, but not with the low-mol-wt (LM) polyphenolic fraction (< 8 kDa). The use of P. chrysosporium immobilized on polyurethane foam resulted in efficient decolorization of crude OMW. Moreover, the addition of an induction medium was shown to perform several repeated batch cultures for OMW decolorization and COD removal.