Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment

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Statistical optimization of process variables by Response Surface Methodology for the Removal of Colour and COD from Distillery Spent wash by Thermotolerant Bacterial Consortium

Arulmathi P., Elangovan G. and Farjana Begum A.

Distillery industries generate large volume of spent wash containing high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) along with melanoidin. Discharge of these compounds causes toxic effects on living system; it should be treated before disposal into water bodies. Various technologies have been put into practice and novel bioremediation approaches for treatment of distillery spent wash are being worked out. In this research work we have used bacterial strains consortium (Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) for treatment of distillery effluent and optimized the treatment process variable. Process variables such as Incubation time, pH, Inoculum level and Incubation temperature were selected as operation variables and removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color was considered as response variable for optimization using response surface methodology. Central composite response surface design (CCD) was employed to optimize the process variables. Second order polynomial models were developed for the responses and contour plots were used to study the interactive effects of the process variables on the treatment efficiency of spent wash. The optimum process conditions were found to be: Incubation Time of 54 h 40 min, pH of 3.5, Inoculum level of 0.75 ml and Incubation Temperature of 36.5◦C. Under these conditions, removal efficiencies of COD and color were found to be 68.1 % and 79.5% respectively which are in close agreement with real experiments. These results indicate that using Bacterial consortium is an effective technique and utilized for removal of organic compounds from distillery spent wash at industrial scale.

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Biogas Generation from Low Strength Domestic Wastewater by using Partially Phased Anaerobic Process

Bodkhe S.Y.

R and D in the area of anaerobic treatment of low stength wastewaters is meager. In this paper, performance evaluation of partially phased anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) with respect to the variation of hydraulic retention time (HRT) while treating domestic wastewater has been discussed. Reactor performance evaluation was carried out at 10 different HRTs ranging from 6 days (d) to 3 hours (h). At optimum HRT of 6 h, SS, BOD, COD were found to be 86%, 87% and 84% respectively. Specific methane yield and methane content were found to be 0.34 m3CH4/KgCODr and 67% respectively. The study has evaluated the performance pattern and identified ABR as a suitable technology for the treatment of low strength wastewater for biogas generation. Empirical relationship between BOD degradation, VFA production and biogas generation was observed to be linear.

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Air quality monitoring with special reference to suspended particulate matter in Yamuna Nagar-Jagadhri twin city- an Industrial area in Haryana

Sharma H.K., Singh Nirankar, Bhasin S.K. and Ahuja Sunita

Vehicular and industrial exhausts have adverse effect on the ambient air quality. They emit SPM and gases into the atmosphere influencing the health and other materials of the area. A ground level study was carried out in Yamuna Nagar-Jagadhri twin city at two different sites. Suspended particulate matter samples were collected on glass fiber filters for a period of six months in 2011. Collected samples were also analyzed for organic tarry matter and loss on ignition. The SPM levels varied between 66 μg/m3 to 426 μg/m3. Higher SPM levels were observed near industrial area site as compared to the sampling site away from the industrial area. The average percentage of organic tarry matter varied between 2.9 to 5.7 and 2.7 to 4.7 in urban and semi urban area respectively. The average percentage of LOI (37.3%) pointed out the presence of high content of combustible matter in the atmospheric air. Levels of OTM and LOI are associated with vehicular and industrial exhausts.

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Bacterial diversity assessment of heavily polluted Dindigul tannery effluent

Renuga Devi Navaneethan, Krishnan Muthukalingan, Suganya Thangaiyan, Suriya Jayaraman and Dinakaran Sundaram

Present study reveals the bacterial community of Tannery Effluent Plant (ETP) at Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India. It was assessed by culture dependent approach based on 16S rRNA sequencing followed by screening of tannin degrading bacterial isolates. Further the genotypic finger printing technique namely Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC) was employed to study the diversity among the tannic acid resistant bacterial community. We have obtained 11 and 8 different bacterial strains from Raw Effluent (RE) and Treated Effluent (TE) respectively. Among the 19 strains, B. licheniformis was found to be resistant to 1% of tannic acid from both RE and TE which can be exploited for treatment of tannery effluent in future.

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Bio filtration of Styrene using Composite Beads of Wood Charcoal and Compost as biofilter media

Singh S., Naidu S., Rai B.N. and Singh R.S.

Bio filtration of Styrene laden air stream using (PVA/Charcoal + Compost /KNO3 Composite beads) as modified biofilter media was carried out for a period of 131 days. Media was characterized and results showed that it has most of the favourable properties required for biofiltration. Activated sludge from the aeration tank of a local sewage treatment plant after acclimation with Styrene was used as inoculum. Surface morphology of the biofilter media before and after inoculation using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) clearly indicated growth of bacteria along with some fungi on its surface. The maximum removal efficiency of 97.3 % was obtained at the styrene loading of 522.5g m-3 h-1 during the phase II without supply of nutrients to the packing media. During the whole experimental period total inlet loading rate of styrene was varied in the range of 17.5 to 1100.1 g m-3 h-1. The maximum elimination capacity of 870.9 g m-3 h-1 was obtained at the styrene loading of 990 g m-3 h-1.

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Development of probioticated cucumber juice using Lactobacilus acidophilus

Nithya Priya S., Ramalingam P., Shivasuriya M., Suruthi G. and Thilakavathi R.

The aim of the present study was to develop a probioticated cucumber juice by optimizing the concentration of prebiotic (inulin), stevia (Stevia rebudiana) and inoculum Lactobacillus acidophilus by varying one factor at a time. Cucumber juice with 3% prebiotic had a pH 3.91, acidity 0.54%, total sugars 179 μg/mL, reducing sugars 328.91 μg/mL and microbial viability of 3.2 X 1010 CFU/mL respectively. The juice with 2% stevia had a pH 3, acidity 0.45%, total sugars 166.6 μg/mL, reducing sugars 238 μg/ml and microbial viability of 1.9 X 108 CFU/mL respectively. The juice with 3% inoculum size had a pH 3.43, acidity 0.35%, total sugars198.2 μg/mL, reducing sugars 327.4 μg/mL and microbial viability of 2.1 X 108 CFU/mL respectively. Maximum growth of the probiotic L. acidophilus in the cucumber juice was obtained at the end of 48 h of fermentation for 3% prebiotic, 2% stevia and 3% inoculum size without many changes in nutritional and organoleptic properties. The probiotic strain namely L. acidophilus proved its ability and suitability to ferment cucumber juice.

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Effects of Ganoderma lucidum crude Polysaccharides (GLCP) on Growth, Survival and Biochemical Composition of the Freshwater Prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae

Kannan Mohan, Muthusamy Padmanaban and Venkatachalam Uthayakumar

The present study was made to analyze the effects of Ganoderma lucidum crude polysaccharides (GLCP) on growth performance, survival and biochemical composition of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii post-larvae (PL). GLCP was supplemented at 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 % with the basal diet. The diet without supplementation of GLCP was served as control diet. After twelve weeks feeding experiment, the survival and growth (weight and length), specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein conversion rate were significantly (p˂0.05) elevated in PL fed with 2.0 % GLCP supplemented diet. The biochemical compositions such as protein, amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid and ash contents were also significantly (p˂0.05) higher in 2.0 % GLCP supplemented feed fed PL. Further, essential and non-essential amino acids, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids were significantly (p˂0.05) elevated in 2. 0 % GLCP supplemented feed fed PL. Hence, this study suggests that the 2.0 % GLCP can be selected as a dietary supplementation for the better cultivation of M. rosenbergii PL.

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Identification and Quantification of Flavonoids from Sphaeranthus Amaranthoides

Swarnalatha Y. and Jyotsna

Medicinal plants have been important part of the healthcare system. Plants contain phytochemicals which are responsible for their physiological and biological properties.These bioactive compounds protect the plants from pathogens, pests and insects. These compounds have various health benefit properties like anti-oxidant, hepatoprotective activity and anti-inflammatory etc. Amongst all the phytochemicals, flavonoids have been known to possess high activity to treat the hepatotoxicity and to be used for the treatment of various diseases. In the present study, the leaf extract of Sphaeranthus amaranthoides was qualitatively as well as quantitavely estimated for the presence of total phenol and flavonoids content. Qualitatively flavonoids were identified from the leaves extract using chloroform: ethyl acetate by thin layer chromatography. The total phenol content was estimated by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and found to be 22.6mg/g. The flavonoid content was estimated by aluminium chloride colorimetric method and found to be 13.2mg/g.

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