Azo-dye biodegradation under anoxic conditions

Biological oxidation of ate-dyes is important for wastewater treatment. Ate-dyes are synthetic organic colorants that exhibit great structural variety. A large majority of these dyes are released into the environment. The textile industry and dyestuff manufacturing industry are two major sources of released azodyes. In the present study, we focus on the anoxic degradation of a disperse ate-dye, p-aminoazobenzene (pAAB), a simple ate-dye, by a pure culture of Bacillus subtilis, growing on a synthetic medium. Bacillus subtilis is a bacterium capable of using nitrate and/or nitrite as terminal electron acceptor under anoxic conditions. This bacterium lacks the capability for fermentation. The degradation of p-aminoazobenzene by Bacillus subtilis was examined through batch experiments in order to elucidate the mechanism of dye degradation. The results proved that Bacillus subtilis co-metabolizes p-aminoazobenzene under denitrifying conditions, in the presence of glucose as carbon source, producing aniline and p-phenylenediamine as the nitrogen-nitrogen double bond is broken. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ.