Biological neutralization of chlor-alkali industry wastewater
Rakeshkumar M Jain1, Kalpana H Mody, Jitendra Keshri
1Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G.B. Marg, Bhavnagar Gujarat 364021, India. rmjain@csmcri.org
Abstract:
The present work reports biological neutralization of chlor-alkali industrial effluent by an alkaliphilic bacterium, isolated from the Gujarat coast, which was identified as Enterococcus faecium strain R-5 on the basis of morphological, biochemical and partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The isolate was capable of bringing down the pH of waste water from 12.0 to 7.0 within 3 h in the presence of carbon and nitrogen sources, with simultaneous reduction in total dissolved solutes (TDS) up to 19-22%. This bacterium produced carboxylic acid, as revealed by FT-IR analysis, which facilitated neutralization of alkaline effluent. The presence of unconventional raw materials viz. Madhuca indica flowers or sugar cane bagasse as carbon and nitrogen sources could effectively neutralize alkaline effluent and thus making the bioremediation process economically viable. The time required for neutralization varied with size of inoculum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on biological neutralization of a chlor-alkali industrial effluent.
Related Concept Videos
Biological Treatment of Effluent and Waste Water
Bioremediation
Acids, Bases and Neutralization Reactions
Acids, Bases and Neutralization Reactions
Microbial Wastewater Treatment
Microbial Bioremediation of Pesticides


