Textile dyes used in color imparting are often recalcitrant and carcinogenic in nature. The release of dyes into the environment constitutes a small proportion of water pollution, and the colored waste waters represent a serious environmental problem and a public health concern. The major challenge of textile industries today is to find an effective solution for dye effluent treatment which meets all the requirement of environmental protection. This review narrates the use of bioreactors immobilized with bacteria, fungi and algae as the solution for the degradation of textile dyes. The parameters considered with respect to dye decolorisation and degradation in immobilized reactors were COD, HRL, HRT and BOD. It was found that anaerobic fluidized bed reactor showed better performance followed by rotating drum bioreactor (RDBR) and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor system (UASB). Algae showed improved results with tubular photobioreactors. Hence immobilized bioreactors are promising technology for dye decolorisation and degradation.
Hydraulic retention time, rotating drum bioreactor, Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor
