Isolation of fungal strains from municipal wastewater for the removal of pharmaceutical substances

Fungi have been shown to be promising candidates to be used in removal of pharmaceutical compounds during wastewater treatment processes. However, fungal growth, including removal efficiency, can be affected by several factors, such as temperature and the pH. The ability of fungal isolates to grow in the presence of carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and sulfamethoxazole was tested. Removal efficiency results indicated that a fungal isolate of Aspergillus luchuensis can completely (>99.9%) remove diclofenac from a synthetic wastewater media without a pH correction within 10 days of incubation. Furthermore, the results of the biosorption test for A. luchuensis indicate that this isolate uses the biosorption mechanism as a strategy to remove diclofenac. Finally, the results demonstrate that A. luchuensis can remove >98% of diclofenac in non-sterile wastewater without a pH correction immediately after biomass inoculation on biofilm carriers while Trametes versicolor requires an incubation period of at least 24 h to completely remove diclofenac. Therefore, this isolate is a promising candidate for use in removal of pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater with typical pH 7.8, minimizing a requirement of the pH correction.