Biodegradation of Phenol Tainted Industrial Effluent by Exogenous Bacterial Isolates Bio-Mined from Crude Oil Polluted Soil

Phenol in industrial effluent is a major under-reported pollutant of concern to the aquatic ecosystem. In the current study, the effluent was obtained from Eleme Petrochemical Limited, Rivers State Nigeria. Baseline analyses were conducted to ascertain physico-chemical and microbiological parameters. Exogenous bacterial species were isolated from crude oil polluted in Ogoniland. The inoculum was standardized using the MacFarland approach. About 1% inoculum was seeded into the 100 mL effluent for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus sp, Bacillus tequilensis and consortia. The setup was monitored using Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrophotometry while the acute toxicity was calculated using the Probit method. The acute toxicity of the set-up seeded with Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 718.8 mg/L while the consortia had 941.2 mg/L. The phenol residues were reduced by 100% while the 2-nitrophenol was reduced from 5.13 µg/L to 0.82 µg/L on the 10th day of the study. The remarkable reduction of the phenol residues with the use of microbial cultures goes to show the efficiency of locally sourced feedstock as tools for the degradation of pollutants. There is an urgent need for academia to develop robust microbial bio-mining and culture collection centers for futuristic and commercial use.