Isolation and characterization of phenol utilizing bacteria from industrial effluent-contaminated soil and kinetic evaluation of their biodegradation potential.

Microbial degradation of phenol by pure bacterial species is a well-known approach towards alleviation of environmental pollution. In this study, five phenol-degrading bacterial species designated as CUPS-1 to CUPS-5 were isolated from the oil-effluent dumped sites of Haldia Industrial area of West Bengal, India. Detailed morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization identified CUPS-3 as a novel strain- Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (GU358076), while the others could be identified as Pseudomonas (CUPS-2, 5), Delftia (CUPS-1) and Micrococcus (CUPS-4) genera, respectively. Although all of these strains utilized phenol as their sole carbon source supporting growth, three among them, CUPS-2, CUPS-3 and CUPS-5 proved potential phenol degraders and hence used for further biodegradation studies. Degradation experiments were carried out for several initial phenol concentrations of 500 mg/L, 750 mg/L, 1000 mg/L, 1250 mg/L and 1500 mg/L. The novel strain, CUPS-3 could completely degrade 500 mg/L phenol within 48 h, with 0.0937/h substrate degradation rate and 16.34 mg/L/h substrate consumption rate. The strains degraded phenol via meta-cleavage pathway. Prediction of kinetic parameters of the biodegradation was accomplished Haldane model using the experimental data of degradation rate and phenol concentration as function of time.