Sandip Magdum

In India, to achieve the stringent norms of total nitrogen less than 10 mg/l in sewage treatment plant is a big challenge for the public-private facilities and organizations. After successful implementation of this norm the pollutant burden from rivers and natural water bodies certainly reduces. The use of conventional biological nitrogen removal (BNR) processes for new treatment facility development or retrofitting is also an energy and cost intensive practice. The process technologies offered by current market such as MLE, MBBR, IFAS and SBR are still in with downside of higher footprint, multi tank reactors, heavy instrumentation for IR and RAS which ultimately incur higher capital and operating cost. The current market need and lack of sustainable nitrogen removal applications, trigger to review the of all available efficient biological nitrogen removal processes. This review will gives an overall scenario of past and current biological nitrogen removal process technologies with showing possible scope and way forward towards more energy neutral nitrogen removal technologies.

Comparing with lesser algal growth rate for biofuel production along with many constraints, fungal route should be analyzed for its capability of biodiesel or mycodiesel production. The two fungal strains namely, Mucor circinelloides (MTCC1297) and Gliocladium roseum (MTCC6474) were analyzed for laboratory scale mycodiesel production. The M. circinelloides and G. roseum were able to produce biomass of 0.404 mg VSS/mg sucrose and 0.642 mg VSS/ mg sucrose with the mycodiesel content of 20.69% (w/w) and 11.37% (w/w) respectively. Furthermore, qualitative analysis of the oil contents by GC-MS were identified the presence of Tetradecanoic and Octadecanoic acids.

A B S T R A C T Anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic environment can be simulated in the single stage sequential batch reactor (SBR). Various design conditions viz., combinations of different phase time and different cycle time, hydraulic residence time (HRT), substrate loading rate, sludge age (SRT) and aeration time were analyzed for optimum biological treatment. The pilot runs were evaluated with the design conditions of food/microbe ratio (F/M) 0.2 per day and MLSS of 4950 mg/L. For the given design conditions 4, 5 and 6 hours cycle lengths were analyzed for their efficient performance with 30-33% of decant volume for sewage containing C:N:P of 100:8:2. Studies on 4 hours cycle resulted in the maximum overall organic and nutrient removal efficiency at SRT of 26 days and HRT of 12 hours. Efficient sequencing of reactions with respect to the simulated biological conditions in the pilot plant studies resulted in better oxygen recovery and low power consumption. Also, the enforced biological selector phase condition resulted in high microbial reaction rates for organic and nutrient removal. The removal efficiencies with 4 hours cycle time of COD, nitrogen (NH4–N) and phosphate (PO4–P) were 90, 92 and 78%, respectively. This study offers a potential option of low HRT nutrient removal SBR process.

The bioprocessing methodology of predigester has been modified to optimize the kitchen solid waste processing for enhanced biogas production. The batch and semi-batch study of bioprocess modification in the predigester by adding Candida sp. to acetogenic predigester culture with controlled aeration (micro-aerobic) has shown the enhancement in volatile fatty acid (VFA) in predigestion. The study of pilot plant which was operated with 24-30 days of hydraulic retention time (HRT) with average rate of feeding was 67-82 kg-wet/day. The experiment resulted with average volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration of 25.41 g/l enhanced from 18.04 g/l in predigestion and ultimately average biogas production increased to 16.23 m 3 /day from 6.76 m 3 /day. The efficiency of biogas production per unit feed processed was enhanced from 0.099 m 3 /kg-wet to 0.2 m 3 /kg-wet. The present study of waste to energy technology offers a promising decentralized alternative for organic solids/ food waste utilization for enhanced biogas production.

Biological wastewater treatment typically requires the use of bacteria for degradation of carbonaceous and nitrogenous compounds present in wastewater. The high lipid containing biomass can be used to extract oil and the contents can be termed as bio-oil (or biodiesel or myco-diesel after transesterification). The separate experiments were conducted on actual wastewater samples with 5% v/v inoculum of Mucor circinelloides MTCC1297 and Trichoderma reesei NCIM992 strains. The observed reductions in chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 88.72% and 86.75% in 96 hrs and the observed substrate based biomass yields were 0.21 mg VSS/mg COD and 0.22 mg VSS/mg COD for M. circinelloides reactor and for T. reesei reactor, respectively. The resulted bio-oil production from wastewater treatment by M. circinelloides and T. reesei reactors was 142.2 mg/L and 74.1 mg/L, whereas biomass containing bio-oil contents (%w/w) were 22.11% and 9.82%, respectively. In this experiment, the fungal wastewater treatment was also compared with conventional bacterial process with respect to specific growth rate, biomass production, and oil content. This study suggests that wastewater can be used as a potential feedstock for bio-oil production with the use of oleaginous fungal strains and which could be a possible route of waste to energy.

Pilot plant studies of sequential batch reactor (SBR) cycles revealed the role of selector phase biology (SPB) involved in COD removal, nitrification, denitrification and total phosphate removal. The phases namely anoxic, anaerobic and aerobic in single tank reactor design of SBR were showed effective biological nutrient removal (BNR) > 90% on average in 4 h designed cycle time with 12 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT). The phases were 2 h fill which includes 1 h simultaneous fill and aeration, 1 h settle and 1 h decant. This cycle design found effective to create selective environment for microbes to carry biological organic and nutrient removal reactions with improvement in sludge volume index (SVI).

Per capita energy consumption of India is declining with increasing its population, which has direct impact on national economy. Biogas technology seems promising to attain sustainable energy yields without damaging the environment. Waste management, manure creation, health care and employment foundation are the benefits of biogas system. Use of biogas assures renewable energy supply and balance of green house gases. India is traditionally using biogas since long time but there is need to improve the technology, applications and deployment strategies. Bioenergy centralization in urban and decentralization in rural can help government to minimize both the import of fuel derivatives and solid waste processing cost. The aim is to highlight potential of the technology to bring social and economical sustainability to India. In this review, demand of energy sources, drivers for bioenergy use, economical, social and environmental benefits of biogas regularization in India are described with emphasizing biogas as an ideal sustainable energy source with its potential applications.

The aim of this work was to optimize the biodegradation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) containing actual textile wastewater for a sustainable treatment solution. The isolated microbial consortia of effective PVA degrader namely Candida Sp. and Pseudomonas Sp., which were responsible for symbiotic degradation of chemical oxidation demand (COD) and PVA from desizing wastewater. In the process optimization, the maximum aeration was essential to achieve a high degradation rate, where as stirring enhances further degradation and foam control. Batch experiments concluded with the need of 16 lpm/l and 150 rpm of air and stirring speed respectively for high rate of COD and PVA degradation. Optimized process leads to 2 days of hydraulic retention time (HRT) with 85–90% PVA degradation. Continuous study also confirmed above treatment process optimization with 85.02% of COD and 90.3% of PVA degradation of effluent with 2 days HRT. This study gives environment friendly and cost effective solution for PVA containing textile wastewater treatment.

PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol) is completely degraded and utilized by non-ubiquitous microorganisms as a sole source of carbon. PVA containing effluent treatments are not preferred because of high cost. PVA causes serious environmental pollution hence the objective of this work was to establish rapid and reliable method for analysis of COD (Chemical oxygen demand) and PVA concentration in textile desizing or any PVA containing effluent. Two indirect methods namely COD by TC (Total carbon) and TOC (Total organic carbon) were compared with COD chemical as standard. The percentage deviation of 0-0.8% PVA was same in both indirect COD by TC and TOC whereas for 1 - 4% PVA it was <10 for COD by TC and 30 to 35 for COD by TOC. Standard deviation range for indirect COD by TC was 600-3000, while indirect COD by TOC was 1500-28000. Indirect COD by TC was found more precise than indirect COD by TOC for PVA containing samples and more rapid than COD chemical. The spectrophotometrically analyzing PVA concentration by iodine method was reconfirmed and absorbance at 690 nm indicates corresponding PVA concentration. TC and iodine methods of analyzing PVA containing effluent were rapid and precise than conventional chemical COD method; these could be useful in the faster pollution detection and environmental protection from PVA.

Recent nanotechnological revolution mandates astonishing imagination about future nanoworld. Nature has ability to create nanobiomolecules which can function in extraordinary way which can be used to produce nanohybrid systems. The opportunity to use such nanobiomolecules in combination of nanomechanical systems for development of novel nanohybrid systems for their various applications needs to explore in further nanotechnological development. F1 ATPase is a subunit of ATP synthase, which is one of the biomolecular structure works on the plasma membrane of the living cell. The reversible function of F1 ATPase gives a counterclockwise rotation of γ shaft by hydrolyzing ATP and the energy released in the form of rotational torque. This rotational torque of F1 ATPase can be used to power the functional movement of nanodevice. This feature article discusses comparisons of various biomolecular motors for their powering capacities, recent developments, presents new discoveries, experimentations on F1 ATPase and its novel imaginary futuristic applications where F1 ATPase could be used as nanobioengine for powering functional nanoworld.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection and antibiotic wash are the critical steps of Agrobacterium mediated plant transformation procedure, most time responsible for lower transformation efficiency due to necrosis and phytotoxicity caused by biotic stress of Agrobacterium and abiotic stress by antibiotics respectively. Ammi majus Egyptian origin medicinal plant and Pearl millet cereal grain crop were studied for their stress responses to Agrobacterium mediated transformation (AMT). Agrobacterium strains LBA4404 (O.D.=0.6-0.8) and EHA105 (O.D.=0.2-0.4) were used for transformation experiments to infect calli of Ammi majus and embryogenic calli of Pearl millet respectively. Incase of antibiotic wash, Cefotaxime 500 mg L-1 was used for LBA4404 infected Ammi majus calli and Timentin 300 mg L-1 was used for EHA105 infected embryogenic calli of Pearl millet.
Effects of Agrobacterium infection, antibiotic and NaOCl washes on Agrobacterium removal and both explants physiological changes during transformation experimental procedures were studied. At the end of the experiments explants survival efficiency of Ammi majus and pearl millet were 8% and 5% respectively. Biotic and abiotic stress factors responsible for lower efficiency were investigated with various other factors and strategies were discussed which are need to be considered for higher transformation events and target tissue survival.

Ammi majus L. is an imperiled medicinal plant, which contains various medically important and uncommon extraordinary secondary metabolite compounds. An efficient organogenesis protocol was established for Ammi majus through in vitro process of leaf callusing, shooting and rooting by using different combination of auxins and cytokinins. In vitro cultured juvenile leaf explants were used directly for callus formation on MS supplemented with different concentration of IAA, Kn and CH. Maximum percentage response for callus formation was 97.7 after 5 weeks of incubation on MS supplemented with 2 mg/l IAA, 2 mg/l Kn and 1000 mg/l CH. About 81% of calluses converted to shoot on callusing medium supplemented with 50 mg/l glutamine and 40 mg/l adenine, after 80 days of culture. Plantlets with shoot were transferred to half strength of MS with different concentration of IBA and glutamine. Maximum rooting of 75.96% was observed on half strength of MS supplemented with 0.2% of IBA and 100 mg/l glutamine. The present study gives reliable in vitro regeneration protocol for Ammi majus L. from leaf explants, which may be used for future commercial‐scale propagation and genetic study.

The developed protocol describes a cheaper, quicker and reliable method for the isolation of pure DNA from medicinal herbs, such as Ammi majus, which produces the secondary metabolites xanthotoxin and berganpectane having immense medicinal importance. Use of CTAB, liquid nitrogen and EDTA in different isolation protocols analyzed for A. majus, all were ended with polysaccharide and protein contamination with low purity of DNA (A260/280 = 1.3 – 1.6), revealed a need for method modification for the inexpensive and rapid isolation of pure DNA. Developed reliable and competent protocol isolated enough pure DNA (A260/280 = 1.81) without following time consuming lengthy steps and hazardous chemicals used in other protocols, which increase experimental costs, risk, and need expertise to perform. The explained protocol requires few chemicals and little time to obtain pure DNA having yield 688 μg/g of A. majus. A higher quantity of isolated DNA obtained from young fresh leaf samples than from either the callus or stem. A. majus is a pharmaceutically important medicinal herb, and the present protocol aids in the analysis and modification of its genes.

Cleaning and removal of water hyacinth from lakes and various historical places government spends lacks of rupees
per year. High rate of propagation and easy availability, water-hyacinth could be used as a renewable carbon source
for alcohol (fuel ethanol) production. Water-hyacinth’s (Eichhornia crassipes) hemicellulose acid hydrolysate has
been utilized as a substrate for alcohol production using Pichia stipitis NCIM3497. Acid hydrolysis were carried
out by using (1% v/v) sulfuric acid. Perhydrolysate was detoxified, boiled and overlimed up to pH 10.0 with NaOH
to produce acid hydrolysate. Acid hydrolysate had higher fermentability than perhydrolysate. Freshly prepared acid
hydrolysate was directly used in fermentation broth as substrate. Fermentation was carried out for 40 hrs. Total
reducing sugars were 51.3 gm/lit and at the end of 40 hrs the fermentation it was 9.2 gm/l. About 82.06% of the
available sugars were utilized within 40 hrs. At the end of fermentation, alcohol was estimated by of K2Cr2O7
method, which is 19.2 gm/lit and an alcohol yield of 0.45 gm/gm sugar utilized. Considering the cost various feed
stock, use of water- hyacinth which is freely available in large amount as a substrate, offers an opportunity to reduce
the cost of fuel alcohol production.