Furfural biodegradation by indigenous actinobacteria

Abstract

Wastewaters derived from furfural production can cause toxic effects on living systems if they are released into the environment without proper treatment. In the present work, the removal of different concentrations of furfural by actinobacteria from liquid systems was studied. The results showed that the culture for which the relationship between the concentration of residual furfural and the bacterial growth was minimal, was the consortium formed by the actinobacteria L9, A12 and M7. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the bioremediation process, ecotoxicity tests were carried out. Significant increases in the bioindicators (p < 0.05) were obtained when the treatment was carried out with consortium. The results obtained suggest that the selected actinobacteria consortium represents a promising bioremediation tool for the treatment of effluents containing furfural.