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Environmental pollution is considered as a side effect of modern industrial society. With the
immense growth of industries major problem is encountered as contamination of the environment
with hazardous and toxic chemicals. Phenolic, one of the major pollutants, are discharged in the
waste water from the various industries such as phenol resin and pharmaceutical, oil refineries,
petrochemical plants, ceramic plants, steel plants, and coal conversion processes. Phenol and its
derivatives is the basic structural unit in a wide variety of synthetic organic compounds. The
samples were collected from effluent treatment plants of Textile Industry in Kerala. Serially diluted
samples were transferred to 10,20,30,40 and 50 ppm phenol having minimal media. Growth and
total phenol was recorded according to its incubation periods. From the 50 ppm culture, organisms
were selected and cultured in sorbitol agar medium with varying concentrations of phenol (200, 400,
600, 800 and 1000 ppm). Out of 13 strains isolated, 5 strains were selected for further analysis.
Biochemical characterization was done to identify the selected five strains. The strains are also used
to study the effects of temperature and pH.From this preliminary study, it could be concluded that
the standard prescribed temperature and pH were suitable for better growth and phenol
degradation. The comparative study between the consortium and the individual organisms revealed
that use of individual organism had shown the maximum degradation of phenol rate than that of
consortium of organism. Among the selected 5 strains, Micrococcus sp and Pseudomonas sp were
the strains that could withstand all the selected concentrations of phenol.
Key words; Textile effluent, Consortium, Total phenol, Phenol tolerance, Micrococcus sp.