A green approach for the treatment of dye and surfactant contaminated industrial wastewater

Abstract Synthetic dyes, particularly reactive and acid dyes, are commonly used in the textile industry because of their advantages as excellent color fastness and brightness. Also, surfactants are used for an increment of coloring success in the textile industry. One of the major problems concerning textile wastewater is the treatment of the effluents containing both dyes and surfactants. Biological treatment systems are recommended as useful, economic and eco-friendly methods for treatment of industrial wastewater. The purpose of this study was to investigate the binary removal of a textile dye and a surfactant by growing Aspergillus versicolor culture in molasses medium. The effect of dye and surfactant concentration on the removal of dye and surfactant was determined. This study resulted that 100% of the surfactant and dye molecules removed together with the formation of a dye-surfactant complex by fungus. It is concluded that binary removal systems are very efficient for industrial wastewater treatment.