Bioremediation of Sewage Waste from Sewage Treatment Plants in Kashmir

Abstract

Background: Bioremediation is a process to detoxify environmental pollutants using living organisms. The main objectives of our study were to evaluate effectiveness & sustainability of bioremediation in treating sewage waste in Kashmir. Methods: Bacteria were isolated from various sewage treatment plants & then cultured into colonies. Spectrophotometry was used to detect the absorbance of heavy metals by the micro-organisms. Results: Spectrophotometry detected absorbance of metals by bacteria, with some colonies having higher absorbance than others. Conclusion: Bioremediation is an effective and useful technique for sewage treatment.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The human population and industrialisation are increasing incessantly and together with rising anthropogenic activities, and unregulated agricultural activities are putting a pressure on our decreasing natural resources. Thus, a global rise in environmental pollution has been seen in the past few decades that has caused the accumulation of hazardous wastes.[1]

Bioremediation is a process that utilizes living organisms, primarily microorganisms, green plants, and their enzymes, to detoxify the hazardous components of  environmental waste into less toxic forms.[2] It has been used to decrease the concentration and toxicity of several chemical pollutants such as pesticides, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated petroleum hydrocarbons, nitroaromatic compounds, industrial solvents and metals.[3]

Contaminant compounds are transformed by living organisms through reactions that take place as a part of their metabolic processes.[4] Bioremediation has been used effectively in large- and small-scale applications; Alaska oil-spill cleanup is one of the good examples.[5]

Bioremediation is based on promoting the growth of specific micro-flora or microbial consortia which are native to the contaminated sites that are able to perform wanted activities. [6] Establishment of these microbial consortia can be done in numerous ways such as by promoting growth by adding nutrients or terminal electron acceptor or by controlling moisture and temperature conditions [7, 6, 8]. In this technology, microorganisms use the contaminants as energy or nutrient sources [7, 6, 9]

II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To study the effectiveness of bioremediation in treating sewage waste from sewage treatment plants in Kashmir.
2. To evaluate the potential of bioremediation as a sustainable method for treating sewage waste from sewage treatment plants in Kashmir.

III. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was a prospective interventional study, conducted over a period of 3 months from April 2023 to June 2023 in Srinagar, capital city of Jammu & Kashmir, India.

A. Sampling

Sampling was conducted at three sewage treatment plants (STPs) chosen by simple random sampling in the Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir on April 27, 2023. The STPs chosen were located at Brari-Nambal New, Habak, and Hazratbal, situated at geographical coordinates 34°05′12.88″N 74°48′50″E, 34°8'30"N 74°50'30"E and 34°08′06″N 74°50′29″E respectively. The effluent from these STPs is discharged into Dal Lake, River Jhelum, and Brari-Nambal Lagoon. Fresh sewage samples were collected in 250-mL polyethylene bottles that had been washed with distilled water. The samples were transported to the laboratory on the same day.

V. DISCUSSION

Bioremediation is a simple process many scientists use in waste treatment process for contaminated environments. The microbes that degrade the contaminant increase in numbers and release harmless products like water, carbon dioxide and cell biomass. Bioremediation has less effort, less labour usage and cost than other methods used to remove hazardous waste. It is also environment friendly, sustainable, and comparatively easy to implement. It is also beneficial for the total destruction of varied contaminants [10]. Several hazardous compounds can be converted to harmless products. Besides, bioremediation can be executed at the site of contamination itself without any major disturbance of usual activities. There is no requirement to transport huge numbers of off-site waste. There is no potential health risk, and no environmental contamination. Most of the disadvantages of bioremediation are due to it requiring a longer time to complete than other options like excavation and removing pollutants from the site. [11, 12] Also, it needs specific factors such as microbial populations, growth conditions, and quantity of nutrients and pollutants [13, 11].

The amount of UV light absorbed by a substance in a tissue depends on the concentration of the substance in the tissue. This means that spectroscopy can be used to quantify the concentration of a substance in an organism's tissues. The absorption of UV light by a substance is a measure of the strength of the interaction between the light and the substance. The stronger the interaction, the more light will be absorbed. The interaction between light and a substance is affected by the wavelength of the light. Different substances absorb different wavelengths of light. This is why it is important to use a specific wavelength of UV light when measuring the concentration of a substance using spectroscopy.

In our study, the absorption values of certain colonies for the metal Iron were quite high, signifying that a generous amount of metal was bioaccumulated. This was particularly evident in the purple colonies from STPs Brari Nambal and Hazratbal, which had absorption values that were significantly higher than the other colonies. The high absorption values for Iron in these colonies suggest that they may have been exposed to high levels of this metal.

Similarly, the absorption value for the metal copper was found to be high in the purple colonies from STP Brari Nambal. This suggests that these colonies may have been exposed to high levels of copper in their environment.

We undertook a thorough understanding of the principle, application, advantages, and disadvantages of the bioremediation technique and we were able to understand that it is an effective and sustainable method for sewage treatment.

Conclusion

Bioremediation is a promising technology to treat sewage waste in Kashmir. It is a sustainable and cost-effective technique which can diminish the environmental impact of wastewater treatment.

References

[1] Mallavarapu Megharaj, Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan, Kadiyala Venkateswarlu, Nambrattil Sethunathan, Ravi Naidu, Bioremediation approaches for organic pollutants: A critical perspective, Environment International, Volume 37, Issue 8, 2011, Pages 1362-1375, ISSN 0160-4120, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2011.06.003. [2] Azubuike, C.C., Chikere, C.B., & Okpokwasili, G.C. (2016). Bioremediation techniques–classification based on site of application: principles, advantages, limitations and prospects. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, 32. [3] Dua, .M., Singh, .A., Sethunathan, .N. et al. Biotechnology and bioremediation: successes and limitations. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 59, 143–152 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-002-1024-6 [4] Harekrushna, S., & Kumar, D. C. (2012). A review on: bioremediation. Int J Res Chem Environ, 2(1), 13-21. [5] R Boopathy, Factors limiting bioremediation technologies, Bioresource Technology, Volume 74, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 63-67, ISSN 0960-8524, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-8524(99)00144-3. [6] Agarwal S. K., Environmental Biotechnology, (1st ed), APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, India, pp 267289. (1998). [7] Ijah, U.J.J. and Ndana, MStimulated biodegradation of crude oil in soil amended with periwinkle shells. The Environmentalist. 23: pp 249254 (2003) [8] Smith V.H, Graham D.W, Cleland D.D, Application of resource ratio theory to hydrocarbon biodegradation. Environmental Science and Technology 32: pp 33863395 (1998). [9] Tang CY, Criddle QS Fu CS, Leckie JO, Effect of flux (transmembrane pressure) and membranes properties on fouling and rejection of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes treating perfluorooctane sulfonate containing waste water. Jou. Enviro. Sci. Tech., 41: pp 20082014 (2007). [10] P. Broda, “Using microorganisms for bioremediation - the barriers to implementation,” Trends in Biotechnology, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 303-304, 1992. [11] M. Zeyaullah, M. Atif, B. Islam et al., “Bioremediation: a tool for environmental cleaning,” African Journal of Microbiology Research, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 310–314, 2009. [12] S. R. Dhokpande and J. P. Kaware, “Biological methods for heavy metal removal- a review,” International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 304–309, 2013. [13] M. Vidali, “Bioremediation. An overview,” Pure and Applied Chemistry, vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 1163–1172, 2001.

Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Salihah Hassan, Fariza Nabi, Qaiser Ashraf, Ibra Farooq. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.