The
phosphate could be reduced below the permissible limit
within 72 h using lactose carbon source and could be
useful to remediate wastewater containing phosphate.
The efficient removal of phosphate by the consortium
may be due to the synergistic activity among the
individual strains and phosphatase enzyme activity.
The various mineral salts present in the synthetic
wastewater might influence the growth of the phosphate
solubilizers and utilized the phosphate compound.
Therefore, the synthetic wastewater with carbon source
supported the removal of phosphate at higher level.
Thus, the simple method of phosphate removal is
possible by employing phosphate solubilizing
bacterial strains (viz., Pseudomonas sp. JPSB12,
Enterobacter sp. TPSB20, Flavobacterium sp. TPSB23)
and they might use the contaminants as nutrient
and as energy source or it might be degraded by
co-metabolism. Hence, the bacterial consortium could
be used in the remediation of phosphate contaminated
environments.