Biodecolorization and Bioremediation of Denim Industrial Wastewater by Adapted Bacterial Consortium Immobilized on Inert Polyurethane Foam (PUF) Matrix: A First Approach with Biobarrier Model

The present experiments were studied on bioremediation of denim industry wastewater by using polyurethane foam (PU foam) immobilized bacterial cells. About 30 indigenous adapted bacterial strains were isolated from denim textile effluent out of which only four isolates were found to be efficient against crude indigo carmine degradation using broth decolorization method. The selected bacterial strains were identified as Actinomyces sp., (PK 07), Pseudomonas sp., (PK 18), Stenotrophomonas sp., (PK 23) and Staphylococcus sp., (PK 28) based on microscopic and biochemical characteristics. The bacterial immobilized cells have the highest number of viable cells (PK07, PK18, PK23 and PK28 appeared to be 1 × 108, 1 × 109, 1 × 106 and 1 × 107 CFU/ml respectively) and maximum attachment efficiency of 92% on PU foam. The complete degradation using a consortium of PU foam immobilized cells was achieved at pH 6, 27°C, 100% of substrate concentration and allowed to develop biofilm for one day (1.5% W/V). In SEM analysis, it was found that immobilization of bacterial cells using PUF stably maintained the production of various extracellular enzymes at levels higher than achieved with suspended forms. Finally, isatin and anthranilic acid were found to be degradation products by NMR and TLC. The decolorized dye was not toxic to monkey kidney cell (HBL 100) at a concentration of 50 µl and 95% of cell viability was retained. A mathematical model that describes bacterial transport with biodegradation involves a set of coupled reaction equations with non-standard numerical approach based on the time step scheme.