A major class of environmental toxins are the heavy metals and metal derived substances. Phenols are another widely spread pollutant in the industrial wastewaters. In real contaminated sites it is common that different organic and inorganic compounds are present as a threat for the ecosystem. Thus it is important to work on economical and environmentally friendly ways to handle the problem. The ability of some microorganisms to live in stressed conditions makes them attractive in the context of environmental biotechnology. The filamentous yeast Trichosporon cutaneum strain R57 was cultivated in batch mode on a liquid medium, with phenol as a sole carbon source, in the presence of various concentrations of Cu2+ from 0 to 0.15 mM. The growth and degradation time of the phenol under different Cu2+ ions concentrations by Tr. cutaneum cells were studied. The impact of the biomass for the process was also analysed. Degradation of phenol in the presence of Cu2+ was achieved and a relation with the cell density was observed. In the concentration range from 0.025 to 3.0 mM CuSO4.5H2O, a removal efficiency of 20 to 44 % was observed.
