Potential of Fungal-Microalgal species in the Environmental Biotechnology

Biotechnology involves the provision of services to society by microbial communities. By using microorganisms to detoxify contaminated water, one such service offers environmentally friendly solutions to the treatment of wastewater. Isolates of fungi Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and microalgal isolates Tetradesmus nygaardi and Scenedesmus quadricauda were efficiently utilized for the treatment of wastewater. The wastewater sample was taken from Erbil wastewater channel near Dhahibah village, the sample was analyzed for physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, BOD5, PO4, NH4, NO3, and NO2 (every 3rd day) during 21 days of experiment. Results revealed that a mixed culture of S. quadricauda with T. nygaardi were shows the best removal of PO4, NH4, NO3 and NO2 in which 94.94%, 90.73%, 88.23%, 93.84% respectively. Whereas a mixed culture of T. nygaardi with A. niger showed the best removal of BOD5 (94.9%), while the highest reduction in electrical conductivity and total dissolved solid were recorded by mix culture of Aspergillus niger with Candida albicans 81.65% and 81.52%. Statistically, there were a significant difference (p≤0.05) between control and all microbial stains for all wastewater tested variables.