Bioremoval of C.I. Basic Red 46 as an azo dye from contaminated water by Lemna minor L. Modeling of key factor by neural network

This study was carried out to investigate the potential of duckweed (Lemna minor L.) for bioremediation of C.I. Basic Red 46 (BR46) solution. Our results revealed the notable ability of the plant species in biological degradation of BR46. The reusability of the plant in long-term repetitive operations was also confirmed. The decolorization efficiency was extremely dependent on different operational parameters such as initial dye concentration, pH, temperature, and amount of plant. Interestingly, activities of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase as antioxidant enzymes were increased in different concentrations of the dye. In contrast, catalase activity declined in duckweed plants exposed to the dye. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to predict the biological decolorization efficiency. The obtained data indicated that ANN provide realistic predictive performance (R² = 0.981). © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 1082-1089, 2013