ASSESSMENT OF BACTERIAL CONSORTIA FOR THE EFFECTIVE BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF DAIRY EFFLUENT

Abstract

The dairy effluent sample was analyzed for its physicochemical characteristics. Four potential bacteria (L2 – Lysinibacillus sphaericus, L8 - Pseudomonas taiwanensis, P11 - Bacillus marisflavi and P9 - Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were isolated from dairy effluent and their individual efficacy was evaluated with physicochemical parameters. All the four bacteria showed appreciable degradation with P9 at higher order followed by L2. To improve the effectiveness in removal, five sets of bacterial consortia were designed by integrating the isolates in proportion with different combinations and treated with the effluent. The reports showed that consortia set C3 dominated with the maximum level of removal of BOD (88.31%), COD (79.51%), TDS (41.66%), Protein (74.44%) and Lipid (72.87%) when compared to the removal by other sets. From these results of the present study, it is evident that the consortium C3 could be employed for the biological treatment of the dairy effluent in effective manner.