Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent by Thermotolerant Cellulase and Xylanase - Producing Fungi

Abstract

Fungi strain,CD, HD, GD, RH, RA, RS andPD, whichproduce cellulase and xylanase for palm oil mill effluent treatment were isolated from dungs and agriculture waste. Studies on the propertiesof  thermotolerantfungi at room temperature to 60^oC was evaluated. The result showed that all isolated strains were found to be thermotolerant fungi that have a growth temperature at 50^°C and require optimum temperature as 45^°C. Strain CD1, HD1, RH1, RA2, RS1 andPD1were classified as Aspergillus sp. while GD1was classified as Scytalidium sp. The enzyme activity of thermotolerant fungi revealed that PD1 produced the highest activities of carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) (678.14U/ml) and xylanase (2369.12 U/ml). The activities of carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) and xylanase exhibited 80.14 and 244.54U/ml of protein, respectively. This study also demonstrated the effect of treatment efficiency in palm oil mill effluent. The result showed that Aspergillus sp. PD1 is the best strain that have the ability to reduce BOD and COD value of 31.02 % and 49.05% after the treatment, respectively. Therefore, the thermotolerant enzyme-producing fungi are potentially useful to remove organic in palm oil mill effluenttreatment.