Performance study of the bioreactor for the biodegradation of methyl orange dye by luffa immobilized Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and kinetic studies: A sustainable approach

The biodegradation of methyl orange dye was examined in a biofilm reactor with luffa immobilized Stenotrophomonas maltophilia ((HE963840.1), low-cost packing material. The bacteria were isolated from the sludge collected from a common effluent treatment plant at IOCL refinery Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The bacteria were characterized using 16rRNA. The reactor performance was studied at 30 ± 5 °C temperatures over a period of thirty days. The reactor was operated with the flow rates of 60 mL/h, 90 mL/h, 240 mL/h, 360 mL/h and 432 mL/h. The pollutant load ranges from 151.6 mg/(L-day) to 1091 mg/(L-day) and the pH of the dye solution was maintained at 7.0 ± 0.4 during the study. The maximum removal efficiency (RE) and elimination capacity (EC) at steady state were determined as 90.2 % and 658.1 mg/(L-day) respectively. The rate of utilization of the methyl orange dye is described by modified stover-kincannon model with kinetic parameters-maximum utilization rate (U_max) and saturation constant (K_B) to be 2.70 g/(L-day) and 2.34 g/(L-day) respectively. The toxicity studies confirm the non-toxic nature of the biodegraded products.