Molecular identification of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in textile industry effluents

Textile industry is always an expanding and emerging sector due to the ever-
increasing usage of textile products. Apart from dyes, textile effluent also containing

hazardous hydrocarbon in the form of oily waste water generated by the usage of crude oils
and grease for the fabric processing. Textile effluents are extremely difficult to treat due to
their high content of pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic
hydrocarbons. Untreated textile effluent disposal practices leads to harsh environmental
pollution by hydrocarbon contamination to the soil, underground water and coastal
waterways. Moreover these hydrocarbons deplete the ozone, reduce photosynthetic ability of
plants, and increase occurrences of cancer, neurodegenerative and respiratory disorders in
humans. Physical and chemical means of crude oil degradation are clearly not affordable in
developing countries due to the financial burden. In recent years, bioremediation i.e., the use
of bacteria to remediate hydrocarbon pollutants has become a promising technology because
of its low cost and eco-friendly nature. Array of bacteria were identified in the hydrocarbon
biodegradation, its time to identify indigenous distinct bacterial strains with hydrocarbon
degrading properties.