Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 2, 2026

Prospecting Microbial Strains for Bioremediation and Probiotics Development for Metaorganism Research and Preservation
Published on: October 31, 2019
Bioremediation of tannery effluent by Cr- and salt-tolerant bacterial strains
Sobia Ashraf1, Muhammad Naveed2, Muhammad Afzal3
1Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan.
Abstract:
Microorganisms have great potential to control environmental pollution, particularly industrial sources of water pollution. Currently, leather industry is regarded as the most polluting and suffering from negative impacts due to the pollution it adds to the environment. Chromium, one of the hazardous pollutants discharged from tanneries, is highly toxic and carcinogenic in nature. Effective treatment of tannery effluent is a dire need of the era as a part of environmental management. Among all the wastewater treatment technologies, bioremediation is the most effective and environment-friendly tool to manage the water pollution. The present study evaluated the potential of 11 previously isolated bacterial strains, tolerant to high concentrations of salts and Cr for the bioremediation of tannery effluent. Among all the tested strains, Enterobacter sp. HU38, Microbacterium arborescens HU33, and Pantoea stewartii ASI11 were found most effective in reducing biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), and chromium (Cr) 70, 63, 57, 87, and 54%, respectively, of tannery effluent and proliferated well under highly toxic conditions, at 9 days of incubation. The pollutant removal efficacy of these bacterial strains can be improved by extending the incubation period or by increasing the amount of inoculum.
Related Concept Videos
Bioremediation
Responses to Salt Stress
Determining the pH of Salt Solutions
Thermal Strain
Shearing Strain
Measurements of Strain

