Abstract

Pretreatment of Kraft pulp mill effluents by mycelial pellets or extracellular ligninolytic liquid from Phanerochaete chrysosporium enhanced the anaerobic degradation of high molecular weight (HMW) compounds up to 79% and 72% respectively, against 45% when only anaerobic digestion was considered. Decolourization was obtained only after fungal pretreatment, since both anaerobic digestion and ligninolytic liquid pretreatment of Kraft effluent slightly increased colour.