optimization of sulphate-reducing bacteria for treatment of heavy metals-containing laboratory wastewater on anaerobic reactor

Laboratory wastewater is categorized as hazardous waste that should not be released into the environment since it poses a serious threat to environmental safety. in the present study, the use of sulphate-reducing bacteria (srb) colonies in an anaerobic reactor to treat heavy metals-containing laboratory wastewater was examined. srb was initially cultivated with the treatment of fermented compost and postgate’s medium before being attached to the laboratory-size anaerobic reactor to treat laboratory waste containing heavy metal. within the 15 days of initial incubation under the room temperature of 28 °c, we discovered that srb optimally grew on the medium with the composition of 5% postgate b solution, 30% fermented compost liquid, and 5% active suspension liquid, with a total population of cell colonies was 1.2 x 105 cfu/ml. after srb colonies from the most optimum medium were affixed to the reactor, the reactor attained 89% of lead (pb) removal, 69.78% of iron (fe) removal, and 48.93% of copper (cu) removal for 15 days treatment periods. on the 21st days of treatment time, the removal efficiency increased significantly to 91.57%, 78.09%, and 83.56% of pb, fe, and cu removed, respectively.