Evaluation of the phenol biodegradation by Aspergillus niger: application of full factorial design methodology

The ability of Aspergillus niger to degrade phenol in an aerobic batch culture was investigated under different parameters such as initial concentration of phenol, pH, and temperature. The results showed that A. niger can grow using phenol as the sole source of carbon. A high concentration of phenol (1,000 mg/L) was completely degraded after 140 h at T = 30°C and pH 5.5. The main and the interactive effects of initial phenol concentration (200–1,000 mg/L), pH (2.5–8.5), and temperature (25–35°C) on the biodegradation of phenol were studied in this work. A full factorial design 23 was used to determine the optimum conditions for the phenol biodegradation process. The maximum amount of degraded phenol was 1.32 mg/h, achieved at 200 mg/L of initial phenol concentration, pH 8.5, and T = 35°C.