Optimized Biodegradation of Pulping Effluent by Microbial Combination with Statistical Experimental Design

Statistics based experimental designs were used to construct a mixed-culture community for maximal chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation of pulping effluents. By applying a fractional factorial design (FFD) of experiments, the significant effect of each strain on COD degradation was first quantified. Then steepest ascent method was employed to approach the experimental design space, followed by an application of response surface methodology (RSM) for further optimization. A quadratic model was found to be fit COD removal efficiency. Response surface analysis revealed that the optimum levels of the tested variables for the degradation of COD. A COD removal efficiency of (65.3 ±± 0.5) % was observed in verification experiment, which was close to the predicted value.