Abstract
Almost all the compartments of the environment have been severely polluted by heavy metals anthropologically, rendering its intrinsic values. In this approach, the present work has been aimed at developing a consortium of heavy metal resistant bacteria isolated from various wastewater sites. The designed bioaugmentation was aimed to specifically remove lead (Pb2+) and nickel (Ni2+) metal ions from the aqueous solutions. From the total 17 different industrial collection sites, 2 strains viz. Bacillus cereus and Bacillus pumilus have shown remarkable removal of Pb2+ (95.93%) and Ni2+ (95.54%) ions from the wastewater samples. The influential parameters like pH, incubation time, inoculum size, and initial metal concentration have been monitored for better insight into the interactional mechanism. The mechanism of heavy metals removal involves uptake of metal ions (Pb2+ and Ni2+) by means of complex formation, crystallization, and surface adsorption; invigorated with intracellular uptake and stabilization. The obtained results witness the hauling potential of the B. cereus and B. pumilus against the removal of bioavailable fractions of heavy metals thus projects of their practice on a commercial level.
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•Bacillus cereus and Bacillus pumilus were coalesced to form microbial consortium.•Removal potential of 95.93% and 95.54% was attained for Pb2+ and Ni2+ ions.•Efficiency of consortium was studied against different optimization parameters.