Abstract

Effect of mangrove-derived Aplanochytrium sp., was studied for the removal of malachite green in 5rtfaqueous solution under controlled experimental conditions. The dye removal was measured at regular interval by measuring its color intensity. This was confirmed further by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FT-IR) and also to find out the change in the chemical groups. To enhance the dye removal, a statistical optimization was done by two phases of response surface methodology (RSM): (i) Plackett-Burman design for selection of the important process enhancing factors of dye removal, such as pH, temperature, incubation period, dye concentration, glucose, peptone and yeast extract and (ii) Centre composite design to study optimized condition, interaction and combined effect of the selected factors on dye removal. Aplanochytrium sp., was found to remove the azo-dye significantly up to 86.32% within five and half days of incubation under optimized conditions of pH 7.8 and at temperature of 27.8°C. This study proved that mangrove-derived Aplanochytrium sp., was found promising for its potential of synthetic dye removal

Key words: Mangroves, bioremoval, malachite green, Aplanochytrium sp and response surface methodology.