CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Trabajo enviado a publicar, en la espera de las revisionesVinasse is the main by-product resulting from the bioethanol production. It is a dark brown effluent with strong odor, acidic pH, with highs biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), in addition to a large content of mineral salts. Currently, the vinasse produced in Tucuman is stored in sacrifice lagoon systems or eventually discharged in water bodies. This last alternative can produce a blocking in the photosynthetic processes therein causing great damage to the environment. Physical/chemical processes are used in the treatment of vinasse. Nevertheless, they are expensive and could generate large amounts of sludge and secondary pollution. The bioremediation is an alternative beneficial method for the environment. This involves transformation or adsorption processes of contaminants, depending on the organism. White rot fungi are a group of microorganisms with a single intrinsic potential for their use in effluent treatments. Their ability to degrade industrial pollutants is linked to the activity of ligninolytic enzymes. In the present work six basidiomycetes fungi were evaluated. The selection scheme based on their ability to decolorize vinasse and synthesize ligninolytic enzymes in agar medium, allowed to select two of them. They were identified as Pycnoporus sp. P6 and Trametes sp. T3. In liquid cultures systems, they were able to decolorize and remove phenolic compounds satisfactorily from 10% (v/v) vinasse solution. The results obtained in the present study suggest there is a participation of different enzyme activities in the discoloration of vinasse. Among the ligninolytic activities determined, laccases showed the highest titers. It confirmed a correlation between them with discoloration and removal of phenolic compounds processes. Biological treatments using Pycnoporus sp. P6 and Trametes sp. T3 could be used to decolorize vinasse and synthesize simultaneously oxidative enzymes in a environmental friendly way.

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