Abstract

IMMOBILIZED MICROBIAL CELL SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE & ECOFRIENDLY DYE REMOVAL & BIOELECTRICITY GENERATION FROM TEXTILE INDUSTRY EFFLUENT

Neelima Devi*, Nikhil Ramesh Shinde, Abhishek Anil Shendge and Nilima Pendharkar

Abstract

The textile industry effluent consists of high dye content of Azo dyes, sulfur dyes, acid dyes, etc. and also toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, oxalic acid, hydrogen peroxide used in the fabric coloring which when discharged as untreated or partially treated raise environment concerns. Several critical diseases in humans and plants have been reported due to the toxic effects of the chemicals in the effluent. It is also detrimental to the environment and alters various vital functions like respiration, reproduction and osmoregulation in animals. Effluent also contains chromium, lead, nickel, cadmium which has cumulative effect by entering the food chain and the chemicals dyes are reported to increase turbidity and opacity of water which hampers photosynthesis process. High value of BOD and COD, presence of particulate matter, dye, sediments, oil, grease in effluent cause depletion of dissolved oxygen and hampers the aquatic flora and fauna. The present treatment aims at ecofriendly, cost effective, recyclable dye removal which usually involves expensive techniques and also have environmental effects. So, the present study proposes a modified immobilized cell system with a customized prototype of FBR (fluidized bed reactor) and CBR (contact bed reactor). The characterization of textile industry effluent for dyes along with synthetic dyes used as standards like methylene blue, basic brown, Mauritius yellow, aniline black. (Dyes used in textile industry). The immobilization by gel entrapment using sodium alginate and the cell systems used are yeast cell, spores of Aspergillus. The optimization of cell immobilized system is done for cell concentration, percentage of dye, type of dye, time period required and the prototype construction is based on contact bed reactor and the speed of influx and the efficiency is tested by analyzing the influx and efflux by spectrometry. Microbial Immobilized systems help in dye removal by bio sorption. It is an eco-friendly, sustainable way to treat waste water. Partially treated water can be further used for generation of bioelectricity by use of microbial fuel cell, using appropriate microbial system. The Bioelectricity generated is enough for making waste water treatment process sustainable and offers a green solution for the problem. This system of textile waste water treatment is recyclable, reusable and more effective.

Keywords: Immobilized cell system, fluidized bed reactor, contact bed reactor, dye removal, spectrometry, bioelectricity, bio sorption.