Biosurfactant Assisted Effective Degradation of Polluted River Water Emerging Pollutants and Spiked Bisphenol A and Triclosan Mixture Using Bioaugmented Consortium of White Rot Fungus

ABSTRACT Effluent drainage in Indian rivers from industrial/anthropogenic activities leads to bioaccumulation of emerging pollutants (EPs) in ecosystems. This inhibits microbial growth and restricts their bioavailability as carbon and energy sources, limiting remediation. Hence, in the present investigation, degradation of hydrophobic EPs—Bisphenol A (BPA) and Triclosan (TCS) spiked in polluted Yamuna River water‐based mineral salt medium has been enhanced via a surfactant‐mediated approach and optimized statistically using a bioaugmented white rot fungal consortium— Hypocrea lixii and Pleurotus ostreatus . A total of 50 experimental runs were conducted using influential components—sawdust, CuSO 4 , veratryl alcohol and Tween‐80 at pH 6, resulting in 98% BPA and 93% TCS degradation with 185‐U/L laccase and 61.89‐U/L lignin peroxidase (15 days). Validation experiment supplemented with Tween‐80/biosurfactants in medium (CMC—240 mg/L) resulted in 100% degradation (9 days). Other Yamuna River EPs peaks maximum disappeared in Tween‐80 supplemented medium, showing applicability of the consortium for real‐time degradation studies.