Kinetics investigation of phenolic pollutant degradation via Serratia marcescens ABHI 001 and its application in wastewater treatment

In the present work, kinetic study has been conducted in order to effectively eliminate the p-cresol from wastewater employing isolated bacterial strain Serratia marcescens ABHI001 under batch shake flasks in the concentration varying from 50 to 500 mg/L. Further, effects of various parameters including p-cresol concentration, inoculum dosage, temperature, pH and agitation have been investigated. It was found that 10% v/v inoculum of 24 h age, was effective in degrading p-cresol. Beside this, it was noticed that the concentration of P-cresol above 100 mg/L exhibited an inhibitory effect. The maximum specific growth rate (μmax) was obtained to be 0.360 h−1 for 100 mgL−1 concentration. Further, the experimental results were well fitted with Halden's and Andrew's models and kinetic parameters μmax, KS and Ki in case of Haldane model were calculated to be 0.9697 h−1, 88.07 mgL−1 and 219.9 mgL−1, respectively whereas the corresponding values in case of Andrews's constants were 0.6917 h−1, 62.83 mgL−1 and 307.4 mgL−1, respectively. The yield coefficient for the growth on p-cresol was found to be 0.82. [Display omitted] •Kinetics of p-cresol using microbial cells of Serratia marcescens investigated.•Inhibition effect of p-cresol was predominant achieved above 100 mg/L.•Specific growth rate of microbe was highest at 0.360 h−1 for 100 mg/L p-cresol.•The study has significance impact on bioremediation of p-cresol pollutant.