Effect of lignocellulosic enzymes on the treatment of mature landfill leachate

Abstract

The inherent necessity to remediate refractory contaminants from the toxic problematic wastewater like mature landfill leachate (MLL) has become a global challenge. This study investigated the effect of a potentially sustainable technological approach, i.e. lignocellulosic enzymatic activities (lignin-peroxidase, manganese-peroxidase and laccase), produced from six selected fungi on the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and soluble COD (sCOD) from the MLL. The COD/sCOD removal percentage was significantly increased with higher enzymatic activities. Tyromyces chioneus was revealed to be the first ever fungi that produced significant amount of all three enzymes. Penicillium sp. and Tyromyces chioneus were the most effective strains, which removed 66% and 59% of COD, and 64% and 57% of sCOD, respectively. The maximum lignin-peroxidase, manganese-peroxidase and laccase enzymatic activities were 19.3 and 26.9 U/L by Tyromyces chioneus, and 249.8 U/L by Penicillium sp, respectively. It was concluded that lignocellulosic biomass could be a sustainable and advanced biological treatment option to remove refractory components from MLL.