A chemometric approach to understanding the bioelimination of anionic, water-soluble dyes by a biomass-Part 2: Acid dyes

Using a newly developed, rapid and robust laboratory method for assessing the bioelimination of water‐soluble colorants, the level of bioelimination of a series of acid dyes has been determined. A chemometric analysis has been conducted to correlate bioelimination with chemical structure/ functionality. Bioelimination varied between 0 and 96% for the series of dyes studied, the level being generally proportional to the size/charge ratio of the dye. It has been shown that the bioelimination of acid dyes can be enhanced by the use of long, flat, hydrophobic structures bearing a number of naphthalene units or alkyl groupings together with the minimum number of sulphonate and sulphonamide groups.