Bacterial consortia were enriched from original rubber wastewater sludge containing 2-MBT. These bacterial consortia were achieved by increasing 2-MBT in nitrogen-containing medium.

2-mercaptobenzothiazole (2-MBT) has been used as a vulcanization accelerator in rubber industries. It was recalcitrant in wastewater treatment plant. Thus, this work aimed to develop efficient consortium that can be used as an inoculum for treating 2-MBT in rubber processing wastewater. This study obtained 2-MBT degrading bacterial consortia, namely SN, EN, SN-AC+ and EN-Ac+ after the enrichment of original rubber wastewater sludge in medium containing 2-MBT followed by a step-wise acclimation by gradually increasing 2-MBT concentrations in an NH4Cl-containing medium at 30°C with 150 rpm. The consortia had ability to finally reach 86% and 90% of the COD was removed. In addition, the bacterial cells in all consortia growth were observed to increase in OD600, corresponding to bacterial abundance were approximately 2.4×108 CFU mL-1. Thus, the enrichment process through increasing of 2-MBT concentrations allowed the microbial consortia in both sludge sources to adapt and consequently degrade 2-MBT at higher degradation rates. These findings indicated that the acclimatized periods, the 2-MBT concentrations, and the microbial sources played significant roles in the development of suitable microbial consortia for 2-MBT degradation in rubber processing wastewater