Abstract:
Fats, oils and grease (FOG) congregate in grease traps and are a slowly biodegradable particulate
organic matter, which may require enzymatic or hydrolytic conversion to form readily
biodegradable soluble organic matter. The existing treatment methods employ water-based
hydrolysis of FOG to form long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs). The LCFAs discharged into wastewater
treatment system create functional difficulties, especially the inhibitory effect caused by
accumulation of LCFAs. This study aims to find an effective treatment method for this persistent
problem encountered in conventional wastewater treatment system. Solid-state degradation by
lipolytic fungi was performed in a tray-type reactor as a novel approach of bioaugmentation.
Grease trap waste samples were dried to have moisture content of 25–35% and mixed with coir
fiber (1% w/v) for proper aeration. Each 10 mg/g dry weight of substrate was inoculated with
1 mL of spore suspension (1 × 107 spores/mL) of lipolytic fungi. Thereafter, moisture content in
the reactor was increased to 65%, and incubated at 30°C. Within 72 h of post incubation,
degradation efficiency of about 50% was recorded by fungal isolates. The feasibility of using
developed protocol for FOG degradation was tested with a laboratory-scale prototype reactor.
