Effect of Bacteria Consortium, Carbon, and Cation Sources on Bioflocculant Production and Flocculating Rate
O. Kolawole, A. Adegoke, I. Anibijuwon, M. Suleiman, T. Filani, K. Aniefiok, and O. Olabode (pp. 40-52)
Abstract
The cohabitation of organisms within similar environment or culture conditions has been reported to enhance efficiency and production of bioflocculants due to synergistic activity. This study aimed to harvest crude bioflocculants produced from such consortium at varying culture conditions to evaluate the flocculating activity and adaptation in treatment of water. Confirmed isolates from the institute of molecular science and biotechnology were obtained and separated in to three groups comprising four isolates in each group. The isolates and the respective groups are T1 (Providencia alcalifaciens MTK03), T2 (Pseudomonas otitidis MTK01), T3 (Aeromonas caviae MTK12), T4 (Aeromonas rivopollensis MTK15), K1 (Aeromonas veronii MTK18), K2 (Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTK10), K3 (Aeromonas caviae MTK12), K4 (Lysinibacillus sphaericus MTK16), and L1 (Aeromonas sp. MTK19), L2 (Pseudomonas sp. MTK17), L3 (Lysinibacillus sphaericus MTK20), and L4 (Aeromonas sp. MTK11). Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy was employed to display the respective structure and elements in the bioflocculants and treatment reaction. The result revealed glucose and trivalent FeSO4 as the best supportive culture condition for effective flocculating activity over sucrose and divalent CaCl2. Highest and lowest flocculating activities were achieved with isolates within Group 1 but of different consortium at T1,2,4 (98%) and T3,4 (0.4%), which depicts synergistic and antagonistic activity while the least calculated overall activity across each group was 8.7% (Group 3) with glucose and CaCl2 culture condition. This study has revealed that the flocculating activity of crude bioflocculant can be enhanced through the synergistic activity from consortium of bacteria isolates.