Color and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) Removal by Bacteria Consortium Using Factorial Design

Abstract

The present study is focused on the effect of bacteria consortium in removing color and reducing chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the textile dye wastewater. There were three bacterial isolated involved in this study namely C1, C3W and C3K. Factorial design was applied into this study with five factors to be observed. They were pH, initial bacterial consortium concentration, temperature, agitation and aeration. Following seven days of incubation period, it was observed that the chemical oxygen demand removal was achieved from 79.21% to 86% in the designated process conditions whilst decolorization occurred from 32.27% up to 52.74%. The highest decolorization achieved was 52.74% with 15% of bacterial inoculum, low initial pH and no aeration present while highest chemical oxygen demand removal (86%) was achieved with high initial pH, low initial bacterial inoculum and no aeration present during the incubation period.