We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
With increasing awareness among the general public of the problems of water pollution has come a realization among effluent dischargers that the colour in effluents represents a problem in itself. Colourless effiuents are less visible, attract less attention and cause less concern than coloured effiuents. This is despite the fact that often chromophores may be present in very small amounts and may pose no significant threat to the environment, other than turning a river red or purple! Having said this, there can be significant problems of toxicity associated with some chromophores (Brown & De Vito, 1993) and many coloured effluents contain damaging materials in addition to chromophores. The focus of this contribution is the removal of colour from effluents, and in particular how wood-rotting fungi can be used for this purpose. It is perhaps useful to consider briefly what alternative processes are available before examining the possible roles of fungi.
The main processes used for colour removal are physicochemical and chemical treatments (Laing, 1991; Cooper, 1995) all of which have some drawbacks. Physicochemical treatments include flocculation and coagulation, adsorption, ion exchange, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. These processes (apart from expense) have the problem that contaminant chemicals are not destroyed; they are simply removed from effluents and relocated elsewhere – usually disposed of to landfill or by incineration. Chemical processes mainly involve bleaching using chlorine-based chemicals, ozone or peroxides.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.