Chapters authored
Bioremediation for Tanning Industry: A Future Perspective for Zero Emission
Bioremediation is one of the recent technological advancements for treating heavy metals containing industrial wastes. Leather industry utilizes almost 90% of chromium-based tanning agent for converting raw skins/hides into leather. Apart from chromium, metals such as aluminum, titanium, iron, and zirconium are widely used for various end applications. Hence, effluent after tanning processes contains higher concentration of heavy metals. Though Cr(III) is less toxic than Cr(VI), there is higher possibility of oxidation during subsequent treatment processes. Therefore, several methodologies have been developed to remove the heavy metals from the effluent before processing it for common effluent treatment. Phytoremediation is one of the eco-friendly techniques to remove the heavy metals from soil and wastewater. It is commonly used to remediate the unfertilized lands to fertile lands for agriculture. Moreover, metal absorbed plants are used for various applications such as tanning and preservative agent in the leather industry. Hence, metal absorbed plants are not dumped as solid waste. Similarly, algae and fungi are used to remove the heavy metals from the tannery waste and can be as metal-polysaccharide auxiliary chemicals during post-tanning processes. Utilization of nonpathogenic bacteria is also used for the absorption of heavy metals. In this case, the handling of biomass is easier compared to other methodologies owing to less time duration and labor friendly, whereas, in the case of phytoremediation, absorption rate directly depends on the growth duration. In the present chapter, detailed case study is carried out to compare the advantages and disadvantages of various bioremediation technologies employed for treating leather wastewater.
Part of the book: Management of Hazardous Wastes
Biohydrogen Production from Wastewaters
Biohydrogen production technology is an emerging field for the advanced wastewater treatment with cogeneration of energy. Besides, hydrogen is an excellent candidate with high energy value (122 kJ/g) than other known carbon‐based fuels with no adverse effects to the environment as it releases only water vapor as the by‐products during the combustion. Biohydrogen production technology can be assisted through two major pathways: (a) light‐dependent reaction (biophotolysis and photofermentation) and (b) light‐independent reaction (dark fermentation and microbial electrohydrogenesis cells). The light‐dependent reaction can be catalyzed by photosynthetic bacteria, whereas the dark fermentation catalyzed by the heterotrophic bacterial group of facultative and obligate anaerobes. The wastewaters are a rich source of organic nutrients which supports the growth of hydrogen producers along with the disposal of waste and energy recovery. In the present chapter, the recent advancements on biohydrogen production technology from wastewaters with respect to the (a) inoculum development, (b) process optimization, (c) scale‐up and (d) the challenges and perspectives toward the improvement of this emerging technology for the wastewater treatment.
Part of the book: Biological Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery