Degradation of organometallic pollutants of distillery wastewater by autochthonous bacterial community in biostimulation and bioaugmentation process

•Distillery wastewater are heavily polluted with organometallic pollutants.•Bacterial consortium and bioaugumentation process was highly effective.•This techniques can be used at industrial scale for detoxification of environmental pollution. This study aimed to detoxify and degrade the organometallic pollutants from distillery wastewater by using an autochthonous microbial community via biostimulation and bioaugmentation process. Results revealed that the wastewater contained high concentrations of the metals i.e. Fe-2403; Zn-210.15; Cr- 22.825; Cu-73.62; Mg-27.30; Ni-14.425; and Pb-17.33 (mg L-1). The biostimulation and bioaugmentation process resulted from a substantial reduction (50–70%) in the pollution load. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed bacterial community and their relationship with complex organometallic pollutants during the chemical reactions. The major identified organic pollutants in the control (untreated) samples were acetic acid, Oxo-,trimethylsilyl ester [CAS], Hydrocinnamic acid, p-[Trimethylsiloxy]-trimethylsilyl ester and tetradecanoic acid, trimethylsilyl ester [CAS] while some new metabolic products were generated as a by-product in bioaugmentation process. Therefore, the study showed that biostimulation and bioaugmentation were successful bioremediation strategies for the detoxification of distillery wastewater and restoration of organometallic polluted sites.