In a bid to reduce water pollution caused by industrial effluents, the Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, has developed a special consortium of microbes that could be used to treat organic waste even in effluent with high salinity level.
The Centre's director A. Navaneetha Gopalakrishnan said the Centre, which had recently patented the process, would soon join hands with firms to commercialise the project.
At present, several industries release raw effluent into waterways, including the Cooum river, as the microbes now used in the treatment process cannot digest organic waste owing to high total dissolved solids (TDS) level.
The new process was tested in waste water, which has TDS level ranging between 50,000 and 65,000 mg per litre. The microbes used in aeration process helped in treating the organic waste, he said. N. Vasudevan, professor at the Centre for Environmental Studies, said the process would be more efficient than that used in sewage treatment plants for organic waste removal. It is economical than the energy intensive treatment process used in industries.
Moreover, the salt content in the waste water could be recovered through evaporation for use as raw material in alkaline industries. Chlorine gas, which is used as disinfectant in water treatment, could also be generated, he said.
