Preliminary analysis of tannery effluent treatment using microbial consortia

Background: Microbes are effective in control of pollution due to effluent. It has remarkable power to degrade and utilize complex organic substances and changing it to less toxic and simpler compounds. Objective: The present work is done to analyze the effectiveness of the microbes that occur naturally in the tannery effluent in its possible biological treatment. Methods: Tannery samples were serial diluted and spread plated on the nutrient agar media. From that colonies were identified using standard protocols. The effluent treatment was carried out with the microbial consortia (105 cells/ml equal proportion of all the three isolates) of various effluent concentrations (ranging from 50% to 1.565%) by observing O.D and pH values for 12 days. The physio-chemical parameters were carried out with 6.25% diluted effluent of the 10th day, which was the optimum one. Results: The isolated organisms were identified as Staphylococcus aureus, Thiocapsa roseopersicina and Enterococcus fecalis. The microbial consortia decreases the pH of effluent from high (8.3) towards neutral (7.17) and changing the turbidity from 0.88 to 0.56 (O.D) for 50% concentration of effluent. The Physio-Chemical parameters of the treatment was found to be within the limit of Indian effluent water standard. Conclusion: The present work reveals that the microbial consortia could be used effectively in treating the tannery effluent and could be recommended after checking for its biosafety. Key words: Bioremediation; Microbial consortia; Tannery effluent