Abstract
Phenol and phenolic compounds, widely used in industries are of growing concern owing to their high toxicity, and wide distribution in industrial wastes. The present study envisages microbial potential of Psuedomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis isolated from the activated sludge effluent of oil refinery, for the biodegradation of phenol. The individual isolated culture was acclimatized with different phenol concentrations, under ambient temperature in nutrient broth and in mineral medium. Growth kinetics of adapted bacterial culture was investigated. The study reveals that successive increase in phenol concentration directly increased the generation time. While using mineral salt medium supplemented with phenol, generation time increased compared to growth in nutrient broth. With the passage of time culture became adapted with the higher concentration of phenol. However, once the organisms adapted itself to phenol containing environment, the generation time decreased. This means that to expose the organism directly to higher concentrations of phenol would be lethal rather the culture should be gradually exposed to increasing concentration of phenol. Such adapted cultures have the potential to degrade phenol in relatively short time. Present findings prove that phenol adapted culture would reduce the cost of treatment of phenol containing wastewater.
