Isolation and characterization of a novel bioflocculant BF1896 from Bacillus paramycoides strain STV 1896 for efficient wastewater treatment

Bioflocculation is a natural process that suspends colloidal and suspended particles through the use of extracellular polymeric substances, originating from biological sources. In this study, a total of 32 strains were isolated from various spoiled fruit samples and tested for flocculating efficiency both in the presence and absence of a cation. The strain S7b, isolated from S. lycopersicum, exhibited efficient bioflocculating activity of 81% within 5 min, which further increased to 97% within 45 min in the absence of cations. The estimation of total protein and carbohydrate content of crude bioflocculant from the S7b strain indicated the presence of polysaccharide content in bioflocculant. The 16S rRNA sequencing and subsequent phylogenetic tree construction of the isolate showed 99% similarity to Bacillus paramycoides. Further, the FTIR spectra of BF1896 revealed the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and methoxyl groups. The elements, such as C, O, Na, Mg, P, S, and K, showed a composition of 26.9%, 58.0%, 0.6%, 8.0%, 5.5%, 0.2%, and 0.8%, respectively. The bioflocculant was applied for the clarification of raw wastewater, both with and without the aid of a cation, and the results showed that BF1896 exhibited nearly 92% clarification in the wastewater, indicating its suitability in wastewater treatment.