Cost-Effective and Eco-Friendly Method for Decolorization of Malachite Green by Kocuria marina DAGII

This study aims for eco-friendly removal of Malachite green (MG) by ‘biosorption’ process. In our study, Kocuria marina DAGII isolated from soil could effectively decolorize MG approximately up to 99% in continuous study. Column study was performed for MG removal at different parameters to know the probable applicability of bacterial cells in industries. Column adsorbent bed was prepared by immobilizing bacterial cells in alginate. Response surface methodology (RSM) was performed to screen and optimize different physical parameters to yield maximum dye removal percentage. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to study the interactive effect of different parameters and adequacy of the quadratic model in dye removal. From ANOVA test, PreR2 of 0.9914 and AdjR2 of 0.9844 obtained indicated good agreement between experimental and predicted value and generated a reliable quadratic model for MG removal. The final parameters optimized to get maximum dye removal in continuous mode were bed height 15 cm, flowrate 0.5 ml min−1, initial MG concentration 50 mg l−1, and alginate concentration of 2.5% (w/v).