Study of phenol biodegradation by an indigenous mixed consortium of bacteria

227-233The potential of a mixed consortium of bacteria has been isolated from the soil of the East Calcutta Wetlands, the major waste treatment and recovery site of Kolkata, for degradation of phenol, a representative of phenolic compounds has been investigated. The mixed culture is first acclimatized to higher phenol concentrations in the mineral salt (MS) media and then its behaviour for degradation of phenol has been studied. The mixed culture successfully degrades phenol till 200 mg/L and then undergoes substrate inhibition at 400 mg/L. At still higher phenol concentration of 800 mg/L this mixed culture shows an anomalous behaviour by degrading phenol at a higher rate as compared to lesser phenol concentration by overcoming the substrate inhibition effect. The bacterial growth curve also follows the same pattern which indicates the observation. By the kinetic modeling of the substrate inhibition biokinetic constants are calculated which conform to experimentally observed values. For the phenol degradation and growth studies, Haldane model and Yano and Koga model are found to be the most efficient kinetic models respectively