Treatment of tannery saline wastewater by using effective immobilized protease catalyst produced from salt tolerant Enterococcus feacalis

In this present investigation, the saline tolerant organism Enterococcus faecalis was isolated for the degradation of protein content of soak liquor discharged from tanneries. The optimized conditions for the growth of organism were fermentation time, 96 h, pH, 9 and temperature, 40° C. The protease activity of the enzyme was determined to be 310 U/mg. The enzyme was stable and retained its maximum activity at pH 7-9, temperature 30-40 °C and Total dissolved solids (TDS) upto 40000 mg/L. The activity of protease in different solvent systems (polar & non polar), organic matter (lipids), metal ions and surfactants were evaluated. The effect of time, pH and temperature for maximum immobilization of protease on functionalized nano porous activated carbon (f-NPAC) was optimized and it was confirmed through SEM and XRD analysis. The protein content of soak liquor was degraded by the protease immobilized functionalized nano porous activated carbon (Pr-NPAC) and the optimum conditions were studied. The degradation was achieved by 91% and it was confirmed through instrumental analysis such as FTIR, UV-vis and UV-Fluorescence spectroscopic studies.