Biodegradation of aniline from textile industry waste using salt tolerant Bacillus firmus BA01

In the present investigation, aromatic compound of aniline acquired from textile industry waste was degraded by isolated bacterial species from the source of contaminant by using acclimatization and enrichment techniques. The isolated bacterial species were further identified as Bacillus firmus BA01 by 16S rRNA sequencing. The growth kinetics of bacteria was validated over the entire concentration range by Haldane's growth kinetics model. Further, the specific growth rate and the decay coefficients have been found to be 0.024 h⁻¹ and 0.006 h⁻¹ respectively. The salt tolerance of potent degrading strain was analyzed through dose response assessment showing IC50 value of 1.7%. The specific turnover rate was obtained to be 0.047 μM h⁻¹ mg of protein⁻¹. The intermediates of aniline were identified by GC/MS analysis before and after treatment.