Alternative bioremediation from cocoa residues in obtaining Pleurotus ostreatus fungi with the implementation of a multicriteria analysis

Abstract

Theobroma cacao L. cocoa production in Colombia shows an average growth of 6.48 % in the last 10 years; triggering environmental problems, because only 10 % of the fruit is used for the agronomic industry. The objective of this research was to take advantage of the residue derived from cocoa production in obtaining Pleurotus ostreatus fungi as a bioremediation technique with the implementation of a multicriteria crop analysis. The shell was characterized physicochemically with the parameters of pH, lignin and cellulose, among others. Subsequently, it was used as a substrate for the cultivation of fungi and the evaluation of the leachate flow of the culture was carried out through multicriteria analysis with weights of physicalenvironmental variables. The physicochemical characterization of the shell reported a pH of 5.47 ± 0.004, a moisture percentage of 84.345 ± 0.002 and of lignin and cellulose of 45.227 ± 0.184 and 30.700 ± 0.753, respectively; in obtaining the fungus, the appearance of the primordia was observed at 16 days and the fungus to harvest at 21 days, reducing waste by 60 %; In the multicriteria analysis, the weights showed an average flow of leachate in the third quarter of 2018, indicating that leachate flows through hydrological drainage. To conclude, the characterization and growth of the fungus, determine that the shell works as a substrate for obtaining Pleurotus ostreatus fungi, being an alternative of bioremediation for agronomic use, where the information from the multicriteria analysis allows timely decisions on the crop.