Abstract

Entrapment of white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium in calcium alginate beads- its preparation and kinetics for decolorization of the dye basic green

Author(s): K.V.Radha, K.Balu

Phanerochaete chrysosporium, the white rot fungus is widely used in decolorization studies. The fungus was immobilized by entrapment technique using calcium alginate beads. Various factors that affect the decolorization on immobilization of the fungus were studied. The parameters include the reaction condition, size of the immobilized bead, pH and temperature. It was observed that the immobilized beads of size 1mm were found to be most effective for decolorization. The optimum pH and temperature was found to be 4.5 and 37oC respectively. The apparent activity was found to be 25.6U/g of beads. Along with these Kinetics parameters of the MichaeleÂ’s - menten model, Km and Vmax were estimated. On study with operational parameters, the immobilized cells showed a high operational stability by retaining almost 45 % of the initial activity after fourth use.