Toxicity of enzymatically decolored textile dyes solution by horseradish peroxidase

The oxidative systems including enzymatic systems have been widely studied as an alternative for textile effluents treatment. However, studies have shown that some oxidative processes can produce degradation products with higher toxicity than the untreated dye. In this work, enzymatic dye decolorization was evaluated by horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) and the toxicity of discoloration products was evaluate against Daphnia magna, Euglena gracilis algae, and Vibrio fischeri. Dye decolorization kinetics data were evaluated and the pseudo second-order model showed the best-fitting to the experimental data. In addition, it was observed an increased acute and chronic toxicity associated with the decolorization efficiency. The Reactive Blue 19 and Reactive Black dye showed the highest toxicity against D. Magna (16 toxicity factor) and V. Fischeri (32 toxicity factor) after enzymatic decolorization. For the chronic toxicity against D. Magna, Reactive Red was the only dye with no fertility inhibition. In relation to toxicity tests with E. gracilis algae, it was not observed photosynthetic inhibition for all dyes. This study verified the viability of the enzyme horseradish peroxidase in the textile dyes decolorization and the importance to evaluate the decolorization products.