A study on the Bioremediation of leather industry effluent using marine algae

Abstract

newline quotEnvironmental pollution is one of the most important issues facing humanity. It has been increasing exponentially in the past few years and has reached frightening levels in terms of its effects on human and other living creatures. Heavy metals are considered one of the important pollutants that have direct effect on man and animals. This may also contaminate groundwater resources and thus lead to a serious groundwater pollution problem. Though there are many methods available for treating effluent, most of them are not effective due to its high cost and technology. Generally seaweeds were not effectively used for any purpose but were treated as waste. However, in this study, they were used for treating leather industry effluent effectively. Seaweeds such as newlineCenteroceras clavulatum, Enteromorpha flexuosa, Grateloupia lithophila, Enteromorpha newlineintestinalis, and Ulva lactuca, were collected from Covelong, Chennai. Sargassum sp., newlineAmphiroa sp., Ulva sp., and Hypnea sp. were collected from Kanyakumari and Chaetomorpha antennina was collected from Puducherry. Previous work had dealt with seaweeds as adsorbent for wastewater treatment but in the current study, solvent extracts of seaweed were used for the treatment. Seaweeds were soaked in different solvents such as methanol, ethanol, water, chloroform and benzene. The extracts were then used to treat effluent. After treatment, the reduction in compounds such as TDS, hardness, chloride, sulphate, nitrate and chromium were estimated using standarg analytical procedures. The results showed that the algal extracts effectively reduced these compounds present in the effluent. TDS was highly reduced by EIEC (97 %) and less reduction was found in ACK (25 %). Maximum hardness reduction was obtained by HEK (83 %) and lowest was newlinefound in GLMC (27%). In case of chloride reduction, all the extracts of Ulva lactuca collected from Covelong showed very good reduction and maximum was found to be 89 % by ULMC. Benzene extract of U.lactuca showed 91% reduction in nitrate an