Azo-dye biodegradation under anoxic conditions

Biological oxidation of azo-dyes is important for wastewater treatment. Azo-dyes are synthetic organic colorants that exhibit great structural variety. A large majority of these dyes are released into the environment. The textile industry and dyestuff manufacturing industry are two major sources of released azo-dyes. In the present study, we focus on the anoxic degradation of a disperse azo-dye, p-aminoazobenzene (pAAB), a simple azo-dye, by a pure culture of Bacillus subtilis, growing on a synthetic medium. Bacillus subtilis is a bacterium capable of using nitrate and/or nitrite as terminal electron acceptor under anoxic conditions. This bacterium lacks the capability for fermentation. The degradation of p-aminoazobenzene by Bacillus subtilis was examined through batch experiments in order to elucidate the mechanism of dye degradation. The results proved that Bacillus subtilis co-metabolizes p-aminoazobenzene under denitrifying conditions, in the presence of glucose as carbon source, producing aniline and p-phenylenediamine as the nitrogen-nitrogen double bond is broken.