Microbes and Beneficial Microbes

Two of the major environmental concerns challenging the human civilization include minimizing pollution due to

anthropogenic activity and reducing use of fresh water for non-potable application. More than 80% of the fresh water

is used for non-potable application, when the recent report of UN predicts water stress for 40% of the world population. We

have been working on developing tailor made microbial consortium for waste water treatment with sequestration of essential

resources or byproduct generation. Two such processes developed by us include sequestration of nitrate and phosphate from

water of raw sewage canal/agriculture runoff for reuse of the treated water for irrigation and conversion of dairy effl uent into

biofertilizer. In both the cases, during treatment the essential nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) are sequestered or converted

into a form suitable for sustaining plant growth. Th e bacterial isolates used to develop the consortium were carefully chosen

aft er detailed identifi cation. Both the systems of water purifi cation were faster than the existing technology in the market.

While value addition of dairy effl uent takes 16 hours, nutrient sequestration from agricultural system taken just two hours.

Hence through a careful selection of microbes, tailor made consortium can be developed with the objective of waste water

treatment and reuse with little dead biomass formation. Th is could convert waste to wealth while sustaining environment.