Removal of heavy metal by bacterial species isolated from effluent discharge of metal processing industries

Heavy metals containing industrial effluent cause health hazards to plants, animals, aquatic life and humans increasing pressures on the flora and fauna. In this study heavy metal degrading bacteria from effluent discharge of metal processing industries were studied. The microbiological analysis total of 6 industrial effluents samples were collected from various industries, and total of 42 isolates were obtained among these isolates were screed for heavy metals tolerance/resistance. The ICP-AES analysis of the isolates incubated for the 24hr shows that the isolate SR3a and SR2c have the removal efficiency of 44 and 45 percent respectively. Isolate SR5c, can remove the heavy metal with removal efficiency of 52 percent. All the three remaining isolates such as SR6a, SR3f and SR4g have the same removal efficiency of the heavy metal mercury, copper, and nickel respectively, which was calculated as 55 percent. All these isolates from metal industrial effluents showed the heavy metal resistance against Copper, Nickel, Cadmium, Zinc and Mercury. the isolate SR6a identified as Achromobactor sp. was able to tolerate the heavy metal up to 3000 ppm concentration and can be very useful for the application in the environmental bioremediation.