BigPatents India

The present invention relates to the biological treatment of effluents or wastewater containing high saline concentrations. The present invention also aims at achieving the reduced levels of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the treated effluent. The present invention also aims at recovery of the salt present in the effluents to be treated. Accordingly, the present invention encompasses a process for the biological treatment of an industrial effluent including the pharmaceutical industrial effluent having high saline content characterized in that the said biological treatment is carried with a novel microbial preferably bacterial consortium, such as herein described, to achieve the maximum removal that is at least 90 per cent preferably at least 94 percent removal of COD, optionally removing of remaining 6 percent of COD by known technique such as use of activated carbon and further optionally producing or recovering the salt from the effluents to be treated as a by-product by known means.