Enrichment of the fungal consortium was carried out by
gradually increasing the amount of phenol as sole carbon source
from 100 g l1 to 1000 g l1 for more than 1 month in MSM media.
The acclimatization stage has been carried out until complete
removal of phenol. Once phenol is completely degraded, the cells
are centrifuged, washed with buffer solution and distilled water
and then grown in MSM with another initial phenol concentration.
The phenol degrading stains were isolated based on their phenol
degrading ability by enrichment technique. The best phenol
degrading strains were selected from the isolates and used in
different combination for construction of consortia. Consortium
performancewas accessed by measuring microorganism lag phase,
specific growth rate (m), yield coefficient (Yx/s) and specific
degradation rate. The experimental data on the substrate
degradation at various initial concentrations of phenolwas utilized
for the calculation of biomass yield and specific degradation rates
according to the following Eqs. (1) and (2):
Yðx=sÞ ¼ XM X0
S0SM
(1)
where XM and X0 are the final and initial concentration of biomass
(mg l1) and S0 and SM are the initial and final substrate
concentration (mg l1).