Journal of Environmental Biology

Biodegradation of phenol by native microorganisms isolated from

coke processing wastewater

 

S. Chakraborty*¹, T. Bhattacharya², T.N. Patel¹ and K.K. Tiwari³

 

¹Department of Biological and Environmental Science, N.V. Patel College of Pure and Applied Sciences, V.V. Nagar - 388 120, India

²Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Institute of Science and Technology for Advanced

Studies and Research, V.V. Nagar - 388 120, India

³Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre for Applied Research and Testing, V.V. Nagar - 388 120, India

(Received: August 23, 2008; Revised received: February 02, 2009; Accepted: March 02, 2009)

 

Abstract: The present investigation was undertaken to assess the biodegradation of phenol by native bacteria strains isolated from coke oven processing wastewater. The strains were designated ESDSPB₁, ESDSPB₂ and ESDSPB₃ and examined for colony morphology Gram stain characters and biochemical tests. Phenol degrading performance of all the strains was evaluated initially. One of the strains namely ESDSPB₂ was found to be highly effective for the removal of phenol, which was used as sole carbon and energy source. From an initial concentration of 200 mg l^-1 it degraded to 79.84 ? 1.23 mg l^-1. In turn the effect of temperature (20 to 45⁰C), pH (5 ? 10) and glucose concentration (0, 0.25 and 0.5%) on the rate of phenol degradation by that particular strain was investigated. Observations revealed that the rate of phenol biodegradation was significantly affected by pH, temperature of incubation and glucose concentration. The optimal conditions for phenol removal were found to be pH of 7 (84.63% removal), temperature, 30⁰C (76.69% removal) and 0.25% supplemented glucose level (97.88% removal). The main significance of the study is the utilization of native bacterial strains from the waste water itself having potential of bioremediation.

Key words: Bacterial strains, Phenol degradation, pH, Temperature, Glucose

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