Spent wash: Concomitant Pollution Abatement Potential Employing the Fungus Aureobasidium pullulans

Spent wash is a typical end product of distillery. It pollutes soil and water due to its characteristics and mixture of pigments, i.e., melanoidins. Various microbial and chemical methods have been designed for reduction of melanoidins. The microbial method has been mainly anaerobic. The objective of the present study was two pronged, first to reduce pollutant value of spent wash by abating COD and BOD using biomass of Aureobasidium sp., and next to use spent wash as a growth medium for Aureobasidia. One representative species Aureobasidium pullulans has been deployed for this. It produces pullulan, which has wider industrial significance. We supplemented spent wash with various nitrogen and carbon sources to enhance process efficiency, which was essentially aerobic.