Research J. Pharm. and Tech.

8(7): July 2015

ISSN

0974-3618 (Print)
0974-360X (Online)

www.rjptonline.org

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Reduction of COD and Decolourisation of UASB spent wash using E-MBR

Sathish Sundararaman1*, Jagadish Kumar L1, Narendrakumar. G2
1

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Bio and Chemical Engineering, Sathyabama University, India.
2
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bio and Chemical Engineering, Sathyabama University, India.
*Corresponding Author E-mail: sathish.chemical@sathyabamauniversity.ac.in

ABSTRACT:
Water reclamation is a process by which waste water from industries was processed by physical, chemical,
biological or a combination of these treatments so that the water can be reclaimed or returned to the environment
safely. In the ethanol production, the total volume of wastewater released is 10 times more that the ethanol
produced. Currently anaerobic treatment is the most widely used to reduce COD and BOD level from the waste
water. A laboratory scale External Membrane Bio reactor (E-MBR)is used to treat the distillery waste water
collected from Up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) unit. The objective of the present research was to
enhance the treatability of distillery effluent using MBR and was studied COD, TDS and pH changes were
investigated and high treatment of distillery effluent has been achieved. The performance of this study is
evaluated based on the removal of colour, pH changes observed at various stages of this treatment process and
found that maximum decolourisation of 92% and 95% reduction in COD level.

KEY WORDS: COD, E-MBR, reclamation, UASB, Bacteria decolorization.

INTRODUCTION:
Distilleries have been generating high quantities of
effluents. In most of the traditional methods, the treated
effluent also yields very high BOD, COD, TS and TDS
level with high intensity of colour(1-3). The wastewaters
of a distillery consist of fermenter sludge, and spent
wash. The amount of wastewater generated in a distillery
depends upon the water used and the technology adopted
for the manufacture of alcohol. In the conventional batch
type about 10 kl of spent wash is produced per kl of
alcohol. Spent wash has a temperature of about 100C. It
is highly acidic and dark brown in colour. (Table 1).
Colour removal and COD reduction are of prime
importance on treatment of distillery wastewater.

Received on 27.05.2015
Accepted on 20.06.2015

Modified on 15.06.2015
RJPT All right reserved

Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 8(7): July, 2015; Page 845-848

DOI:

Table 1: Characteristics of Spent wash from UASB unit.

Parameter
Spent wash (after anaerobic
digestion)
Colour
Dark brown
pH
7.2
Chemical oxygen demand,
50,000 60,000
mg/L
Suspended Solids mg/l
15000
Dissolved Solids mg/l
8000

Microorganism capable of both bioremediation and

decolorization of molasses wastewater have been
isolated from digested sludge. The effective bacterial
strains from sludge was isolated and acclimatized on
increasing concentrations, which were able to reduce
COD without any aeration and the major products of
degradation process were biomass, carbon dioxide and
volatile acids. A membrane bioreactor (MBR) combines
the biological degradation and the physical separation by
membrane filtration(4, 16).
The major advantages of using a MBR process are
superior organics removal, lower sludge production,
effluent disinfection and
high loading rate
capabilities(15,24). The main objective of this work is to
enhance the performance of treatment of spent wash in
E-MBR. The external membrane configuration is

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preferred, due to low area requirement, longer life,

capable of operating at high solid concentration and low
capital cost. In view of these factors, we have chosen to
carry out this study by selecting an external membrane
configuration system.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Sample Collection and Preservation
The spent wash was collected from a distillery unit (M/S.
Padmadevi Sugars Ltd) in Kanchipuram district of Tamil
Nadu. Liquid untreated effluent was collected in sterile
containers and preserved at 4 C.
Chemicals and Membrane
All the chemicals were of highest purity available and
were of analytical grade, Merk, Mumbai. Hollow fiber
membranes have a smaller range of pore sizes (0.01 to
0.1 micron) used which are capable of removing colour,
odor, and organics removal.
Enrichment and Isolation of spent wash decolorizing
bacteria.
UASB sludge was used for enhancing decolorizing
bacterial cultures by enrichment culture techniques.
Microorganisms having the potential for decolourising
spent wash were isolated by this means. Mineral Salt
Media (MSM) supplemented with glucose (0.5 % w/v)
and yeast extract (0.2 % w/v) ammonium phosphate
(0.01% w/v), NaCl (0.02% w/v), MgSO47H2O (0.02%
w/v), Sludge (1000 ppm) was used for the study5.
The culture flasks were incubated at 37 C. After
incubation a loop-full of medium was streaked onto
sterile Plate count Agar and incubated at 37 C for 24 to
48 h, and 1 ml of the enriched culture was transferred to
fresh medium. Well grown bacterial colonies were
picked and further purified by streaking. The pure
cultures of individual bacterial strains were maintained
by streaking on Nutrient agar slant and stored at 4 C.
Identification of the bacterial isolates was carried out by
the routine bacteriological and 16s rRNA method (6-8).
Bioremediation Experiment
In our previous report we have studied the optimized
coagulant dosage by using Response Surface
methodology was 2 g/l of 10% poly aluminium chloride,
4 g/l of 10% Maxfloc 508 and 40 mg/l of 2% Maxfloc
C22 was used for this study. The experimental setup
consists of HDPE containers for feed tank followed by
sand filter, activated carbon filter, micron cartridge filter,
membrane bioreactor, membrane module fitted with a
suitable pump. The supernatant solution obtained after
flocculation was fed into filtration units so that the units
can be operated in a nominal pressure range of 2 3
kg/cm2.The effluent from the feed tank was connected to
a feed pump (20-30 liters per hour) and the discharge of
the pump is fed to a sand filter. The sand filter is a

cylindrical vessel made up of PP housing that contains

various sizes (pebbles, gravels, coarse and fine) of sand.
The outlet from the sand filter is connected to a 5 micron
cartridge filter to filter the suspended particles that are
present in the sand filter outlet. The outlet from this
cartridge filter is fed to an activated carbon filter
containing granular activated carbon made out of
coconut shell carbon having an iodine number of more
than 1000 mg/g and particle size of 4 x 16 mesh. The
outlet from the carbon filter is connected to 1 micron
cartridge filter for filtering out the fine suspended
particulates that are passing out. Then it is connected to
an External membrane MBR system, which contains a
hollow fiber membrane made up of poly sulphone / poly
ether sulphone. The final clear outlet from this
membrane module which is often termed as permeate is
collected at a rate of 10-15 liters per hour
continuously(Fig. 1), the feed fed to the reactor at 35 40C to get optimum decolorization(9,10,17).
Instrumental analysis
Intensity of colour was measured by checking the OD
values of the test solutions. Except filtered water
samples, supernatant and coloured samples were
centrifuged prior to determination of absorbance for
eliminating the hindrance due to suspended particles in
the sample. The supernatant was diluted and the
absorbance
was
measured
using
UV-Visible
spectrophotometer at the max of 530nm.
The removal of colour was evaluated in terms of
reduction of absorbance from the original waste water in
comparison with the supernatant and the outlet samples
collected from subsequent units. All experiments were
performed in triplicate. The percentage of decoloration
was calculated according to the formula below:

Where, Ao is the initial absorbance at time t = 0; At is

the absorbance at any time t
Total solids and COD determination
The COD of the wastewater sample and the treated
samples are done by IS: 3025 Part 58:2006 standards.
The effluent was characterized for reduction in chemical
oxygen demand (COD) before and after the
biodegradation. The COD of the effluent was measured
by using automated COD analyzer. The total organic
carbon (TOC) was measured using Hach DR 2700
spectrophotometer. The removal of organic carbon was
evaluated in terms of reduction of carbon value from the
original waste water in comparison with the supernatant
and the outlet samples collected from subsequent
units(11-14).

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The isolated organism were purified and 16s rRNA
sequencing and identified as Bacillus licheniformis,
Bacillus funiculus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The
organism was subjected for clustal W and multiple
sequence alignment was done to investigate the
similarity between the sequence and the result shows a
higher order of similarity among them. There was a
massive reduction in the color was observed after
microbial treatment(17-21).

COD of the influent and effluents at each stage of units

were monitored. When run at 33% dilution of spent wash
COD of effluent was reduced by 90% from the initial
raw spent wash. For 66% and 100% spent wash it
reached 95% (Table 2). Similarly the intensity of colour
at the each unit outlet was decreasing gradually, for 33%
dilution 87% decolourisation was observed (Fig.1) and
for 66% and 100% dilution decolourisation was found to
be 90% and 92%(Table 3).

Table 2: Percentage COD removal of UASB Spent wash at various outlet streams.
Dilution Rate
Percentage Reduction in COD Values (%)
(%)
UASB Spent wash after dilution
Sand Filter Outlet
33
36.4
60
66
49.1
66.4
100
54.5
72.7

Cartridge Filter Outlet

72.7
80
85.3

Permeate
90.5
93.2
95.4

Table 3 Percentage decolourisation of UASB Spent wash at various outlet streams.

Dilution Rate
Percentage Decolourisation (%)
(%)
UASB Spent wash after dilution
Sand Filter Outlet
33
Dark Brown
29
66
Dark Brown
33
100
Brown
40

Cartridge Filter Outlet

53
63
76

Permeate
87
90
92

Fig.1

The main objective of the study was to use anaerobic

digested sludge for the isolation of effective
microorganism to treat spent wash along with EMBR to
reduce COD and colour from the UASB spent wash(22,23).
The COD of the raw spent wash was found to be around

55,000 mg/l which was reduced to 3,000 mg/l thus

giving an overall COD removal efficiency of 90 - 95%
and 87 92% of decolourisation at the end of the whole
cycle of process for various dilution rates (Fig 2, 3).

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Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 8(7): July 2015

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.
Fig. 2 Percentage decolourisation of UASB Spent wash at various
outlet streams.

10.

11.
12.
13.

14.

15.

16.
Fig. 3 Percentage COD removal of UASB Spent wash at various
outlet streams.
17.

Thus the objective of COD reduction and

decolourisation of UASB spent wash was achieved by
the methodology mentioned above along EMBR using
18.
the effective microbial consortia of Bacillus
licheniformis, Bacillus funiculus and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa. But still it is recommended to conduct a
pilot scale study to verify the lab scale efficiencies are 19.
achieved.
20.

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