Effect of nutrient ratios of palm oil mill effluent (POME) on the removal of impurities by aspergillus brasiliensis

This study is focussing the removal of impurities from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) by a filamentous fungus (Aspergillus brasiliensis) which contains high levels of nutrients (organic pollutants) such as Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solid (TSS) and Ammoniacal Nitrogen (NH3-N). These pollutants can highly affect water quality and aquatic life and lack of oxygen in water bodies if not properly treated. The objective in this study is to evaluate the fungal’ efficiency in removing impurities in POME at different dilution of POME (10%, 30% and 50%). For that, the trends of biomass growth of fungal (Aspergillus brasiliensis), removal percentage of BOD, TSS and NH3-N were measured while pH and Dissolve Oxygen (DO) were observed periodically. Finally, the correlation between fungal with water quality parameter was determined. The results of this study showed that the A. brasiliensis growth well in 50% dilution of POME and A. brasiliensis effectively removes BOD₅, and TSS from POME over 5 days, with optimal removal outcomes depending on dilution level. A 30% POME dilution yielded the highest BOD₅ removal (90%), NH3-N shows no removal, and TSS removal was most efficient at 30% dilution with 13.33%. Low regression correlations between biomass and pollutant removal (R² = 0.001–0.7) suggest that the treatment efficiency of Aspergillus brasiliensis is governed more by enzymatic activity and physicochemical interactions than by biomass growth alone. The study highlights that Aspergillus brasiliensis efficiently removes BOD₅, NH₃-N, and TSS from POME, with optimal removal depending on dilution, and underscores the significance of enzymatic activity and physicochemical interactions over biomass growth, contributing valuable insights to fungal-based bioremediation of industrial effluents.