Comparative studies on decolorization of textile Azo dyes by different bacterial consortia and pure bacterial isolate

A total of 47 bacterial isolates were isolated and screened for their ability to degrade selected azo dyes. Of these, one isolates were chosen for further studies based on their ability to degrade a wide spectrum of dyes efficiently and rapidly and identified as Xanthomonas campestris MTCC 10,108. Several microbial cultures Pseudomonas flourecense, Bacillus subtilis and Rhizobium radiobacter procured from MTCC chandigarh, India and consortia were developed and tested for their effectiveness. Overall the consortia were able to degrade 65 – 95 % color within 24 hours compared to 60 – 97 % color removed by individual isolates. A microbial consortium labeled S7 showed best color removal in static condition with 80 100% color removed in less than 24 hours.