Nutrient and enzymatic changes of hydrolysed tannery solid waste treated with epigeic earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae and phytotoxicity assessment on selected commercial crops

Animal fleshing (ANFL) is the predominant proteinaceous solid waste generated during processing of leather and it is confronting disposal problems. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of epigeic earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae to utilize and transform the fermented ANFL in the solid state (SSF) and submerged state (SmF) into a value added product along a low residence period (25 days). A total of six treatment units containing different waste mixture compositions were established. Fifty healthy and non-clitellated earthworms were introduced in three different treatment containers: control, SSF, and SmF (+worm). Another set of treatment mixtures (control, SSF, SmF) was established without earthworms (?worm) to compare the results. The products were characterized for physico-chemical, enzymatic analysis and seedling growth parameters to compare the differences in the process with and without earthworms. The changes observed in the analytical parameters were in the following order: SSF > SmF > control mixtures (p?<?0.05). The vermicompost showed a significant reduction in heavy metals, total organic carbon and an increase in total Kjeldhal nitrogen as compared to the product untreated by earthworms. The maximum enzymatic activities were observed after 21 days of vermicomposting. The relative seed germination of vermicompost extracts were in the order of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) > green gram (Vigna radiata) > cucumber (Cucumis sativus) > bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.) and showed no phytotoxicity effects. The results indicated that the combination of both ANFL hydrolysis through fermentation and vermicomposting is a good alternative to the management of this kind of waste.     

Green method of stemming the tide of invasive marine and freshwater organisms by natural filtration of shipping ballast water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Marine and freshwater pollution caused by transport of invasive species in shipping ballast water is a major global problem and will increase in...     

Anaerobic tapered fluidized bed reactor for starch wastewater treatment and modeling using multilayer perceptron neural network

Anaerobic treatability of synthetic sago wastewater was investigated in a laboratory anaerobic tapered fluidized bed reactor(ATFBR) with a mesoporous granular activated carbon(GAC)as a support material.The experimental protocol was defined to examine the effect of the maximum organic loading rate(OLR),hydraulic retention time(HRT),the efficiency of the reactor and to report on its steady- state performance.The reactor was subjected to a steady-state operation over a range of OLR up to 85.44 kg COD/(m~3.d).The COD removal efficiency was found to be 92% in the reactor while the biogas produced in the digester reached 25.38 m~3/(m~3·d) of the reactor. With the increase of OLR from 83.7 kg COD/(m~3.d),the COD removal efficiency decreased.Also an artificial neural network(ANN) model using multilayer perceptron(MLP)has been developed for a system of two input variable and five output dependent variables. For the training of the input-output data,the experimental values obtained have been used.The output parameters predicted have been found to be much closer to the corresponding experimental ones and the model was validated for 30% of the untrained data.The mean square error(MSE)was found to be only 0.0146.     

Paths to the job satisfaction of bank employees

Using a sample of 267 bank employees, this study traced the paths to the job satisfaction of employees at the workplace through the quality of life factors of job involvement and sense of competence. Results indicated that personal, job, and organizational climate factors influenced the ego investment or job involvement of people in their jobs, which in turn influenced the intrapsychic reward of sense of competence that they experienced, which then directly influenced employees' job satisfaction. Implications of these findings for managers are discussed.     

Molecular mechanism of zinc neurotoxicity in Alzheimer’s disease

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Zinc (Zn) is an essential trace element for most organisms, including human beings. It plays a crucial role in several physiological processes such as...     

Chemical and enzymatic interactions of Direct Black 38 and Direct Brown 1 on release of carcinogenic amines

Release of amine products from azo compounds is of considerable interest, since most of the metabolized amine products have toxic and carcinogenic characters. Moreover, most of the azo dyes are extensively used as coloring agents in inks, textiles, leathers, food and pharmaceutical industries. The present study emphasis on the quantification and comparison of amines released from water soluble dyes by (i) extra cellular protein (ECP) of Streptomyces sp. SS07 and by (ii) chemical methods. It has been observed that both the methods release considerable quantities of similar type of amine products. Release of amine compounds by ECP and chemical reduction in acid and alkaline sweat medium from a leather garment sample was also assessed. ECP (0.7852 mg protein/mg of ECP) releases benzidine and 4-amino biphenyl from Direct Black 38 and Direct Brown 1 as stable products at pH 9.2 and at 37 degrees C for a contact period of 24 h. On comparison with chemical reduction, it was observed that about 5-20% increase in the release of amine products by ECP was observed. However, more than 60% of amine products were released by chemical method from leather garment samples than direct treatment with ECP.     

Removal of copper from water by electrocoagulation process—effect of alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC)

Purpose and aim

In general, direct current (DC) is used in an electrocoagulation processes. In this case, an impermeable oxide layer may form on the cathode as well as corrosion formation on the anode due to oxidation. This prevents the effective current transfer between the anode and cathode, so the efficiency of electrocoagulation processes declines. These disadvantages of DC have been diminished by adopting alternating current (AC) in electrocoagulation processes. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of AC and DC on the removal of copper from water using magnesium alloy as anode and cathode.

Materials and methods

Magnesium alloy of size 2.0 dm² was used as anode and as cathode. To optimize the maximum removal efficiency, different parameters like effect of initial concentration, effect of temperature, pH, and effect of current density were studied. Copper adsorbed magnesium hydroxide coagulant was characterized by SEM, EDAX, XRD, and FTIR.

Results

The results showed that the optimum removal efficiency of copper is 97.8 and 97.2 % with an energy consumption of 0.634 and 0.996 kWh/m³ at a current density of 0.025 A/dm², pH of 7.0 for AC and DC, respectively. The adsorption of copper is preferably fitting the Langmuir adsorption isotherm for both AC and DC respectively. The adsorption process follows the second-order kinetics model with good correlation. Temperature studies showed that adsorption was endothermic and spontaneous in nature.

Conclusions

The magnesium hydroxide generated in the cell removes the copper present in the water, reducing the copper concentration to less than 1 mg/L, making it safe for drinking. The results of the scale-up study show that the process was technologically feasible.     

Oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes as adsorbent for the removal of manganese from aqueous solution

A batch adsorption process was applied to investigate the removal of manganese from aqueous solution by oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). In doing so, the thermodynamic, adsorption isotherm, and kinetic studies were also carried out. MWCNT with 5–10-nm outer diameter, surface area of 40–600 m²/g, and purity above 95 % was used as an adsorbent. A systematic study of the adsorption process was performed by varying pH, ionic strength, and temperature. Manganese-adsorbed MWCNT was characterized by Raman, FTIR, X-ray diffraction, XPS, SEM, and TEM. The adsorption efficiency could reach 96.82 %, suggesting that MWCNT is an excellent adsorbent for manganese removal from water. The results indicate that second-order kinetics model was well suitable to model the kinetic adsorption of manganese. Equilibrium data were well described by the typical Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption reaction was spontaneous and endothermic process. The experimental results showed that MWCNT is an excellent manganese adsorbent. The MWCNTs removed the manganese present in the water and reduced it to a permissible level making it drinkable.     

Response surface modeling for optimization heterocatalytic Fenton oxidation of persistence organic pollution in high total dissolved solid containing wastewater

The rice-husk-based mesoporous activated carbon (MAC) used in this study was precarbonized and activated using phosphoric acid. N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherm, X-ray powder diffraction, electron spin resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, ²⁹Si-NMR spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy were used to characterize the MAC. The tannery wastewater carrying high total dissolved solids (TDS) discharged from leather industry lacks biodegradability despite the presence of dissolved protein. This paper demonstrates the application of free electron-rich MAC as heterogeneous catalyst along with Fenton reagent for the oxidation of persistence organic compounds in high TDS wastewater. The heterogeneous Fenton oxidation of the pretreated wastewater at optimum pH (3.5), H₂O₂ (4 mmol/L), FeSO₄?7H₂O (0.2 mmol/L), and time (4 h) removed chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon and dissolved protein by 86, 91, 83, and 90 %, respectively.     

Integrated Bacillus sp. immobilized cell reactor and Synechocystis sp. algal reactor for the treatment of tannery wastewater

The wastewater discharged from leather industries lack biodegradability due to the presence of xenobiotic compounds. The primary clarification and aerobic treatment in Bacillus sp. immobilized Chemo Autotrophic Activated Carbon Oxidation (CAACO) reactor removed considerable amount of pollution parameters. The residual untreated organics in the wastewater was further treated in algal batch reactor inoculated with Synechocystis sp. Sodium nitrate, K₂HPO₄, MgSO₄.7H₂O, NH₄Cl, CaCl₂·2H₂O, FeCl₃ (anhydrous), and thiamine hydrochloride, rice husk based activated carbon (RHAC), immobilization of Bacillus sp. in mesoporous activated carbon, sand filter of dimensions diameter, 6 cm and height, 30 cm; and the CAACO reactor of dimensions diameter, 5.5 cm and height, 30 cm with total volume 720 ml, and working volume of 356 ml. In the present investigation, the CAACO treated tannery wastewater was applied to Synechocystis sp. inoculated algal batch reactor of hydraulic residence time 24 h. The BOD₅, COD, and TOC of treated wastewater from algal batch reactor were 20?±?7, 167?±?29, and 78?±?16 mg/l respectively. The integrated CAACO system and Algal batch reactor was operated for 30 days and they accomplished a cumulative removal of BOD₅,COD, TOC, VFA and sulphide as 98 %, 95 %, 93 %, 86 %, and 100 %, respectively. The biokinetic constants for the growth of algae in the batch reactor were specific growth rate, 0.095(day^?1) and yield coefficient, 3.15 mg of algal biomass/mg of COD destructed. The degradation of xenobiotic compounds in the algal batch reactor was confirmed through HPLC and FT-IR techniques. The integrated CAACO–Algal reactor system established a credible reduction in pollution parameters in the tannery wastewater. The removal mechanism is mainly due to co-metabolism between algae and bacterial species and the organics were completely metabolized rather than by adsorption.