Simultaneous Removal of Endocrine Disruptors from a Wastewater Using White Rot Fungi and Various Adsorbents

Endocrine disruptor compounds (EDCs) are dangerous pollutants largely present in urban, industrial, and agricultural wastes, and through leaching and degradation from/of these matrices, they can reach and contaminate the environment. Bioremediation of polluted systems from EDCs using white rot fungi can be a valuable alternative approach with respect to conventional physical and chemical methods. These fungi have the capacity to biodegrade numerous phenolic contaminants with their unspecific extracellular ligninolytic enzymes. This study investigated the simultaneous removal of the xenoestrogens bisphenol A (BPA), ethynilestadiol (EE2), and 4-n-nonylphenol (NP), the herbicide linuron, and the insecticide dimethoate from a waste landfill leachate (LEACH) adopting a combination of adsorption and biodegradation. Trametes versicolor and Stereum hirsutum were inoculated, separately, on potato dextrose agar alone or added with different adsorbent materials of low cost and wide availability. The substrates with the fungus were superimposed on the contaminated LEACH. The control used was the LEACH overlaid by not inoculated potato dextrose agar. Both fungi showed an adequate tolerance to LEACH. In a period of 20 days, T. versicolor growing on the various substrates removed almost 100 % of BPA, EE2, NP, and linuron, and from 59 to 97 % of dimethoate. S. hirsutum showed a marked degrading activity only towards NP, which was totally removed after 20 days or less with any substrate and, to a lesser extent, linuron. Even in the absence of fungus, the methodology adopted achieved a relevant contaminant removal, with the only exception of the very hydrophilic dimethoate.