ISSN 2200-7830

Journal of Scientific Theory and Methods

VOL 2012

PISC

Journal of Scientific Theory and Methods

270

Volume 2012, 270-287

http://journalofscientifictheoryandmethods.com

Physicochemical and Ecotoxicological Evaluation of Raw and Biologically-Treated Textile Effluent

Ajao, A.T. (Corresponding Author) Department of Biology,Institute of Basic and Applied Sciences, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Nigeria.

Oke, M.A. Department of Microbiology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

Ajijolakewu, A.K. Department of Microbiology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

Odebisi, M.B. Department of Microbiology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

271 Physicochemical and Ecotoxicological Evaluation of Raw and Biologically-Treated Textile Effluent Abstract The physicochemical characterization and aquatic toxicity bioassay of effluent emanating from International Textile

Industry Nigeria was evaluated. The results indicated that the effluent Bacillus was highly polluted. to have Pseudomonas degradative aeruginosa capacity and were

subtilis

found

immobilized on agar-agar and transferred into a bioreactor for bioremediation processes for 15 days. The immobilized cells

significantly reduced COD to 200mg/l, BOD to 20mg/l, and TS< 300mg/l that are upper limit for disposal into surface water. Heavy metals were also reduced considerably. Acute toxicity

study of both the raw and biologically-treated effluent was also carried out using Daphnia magna as an experimental animal model. ATU, 48h-LC50, efficiency of the treatments, linear regression, standard deviation and coefficient of variation were calculated. It was concluded that immobilized cells represent promising

application in the bioremediation of textile effluent and that it is necessary to combine physicochemical and bioassay tests in evaluating the efficiency of effluent treatment.

Keywords:

physicochemical,

immobilized

cells,

acute

toxicity, Daphna magna

272 Introduction Water pollution has become a major threat to the existence of living organisms in aquatic environments. A large amount of pollutants in the form of domestic and industrial effluents is emptied directly or indirectly into water bodies, which has severe impact on their biotic and abiotic environments (Tyagi et al., 2007). Treatment of domestic and industrial wastewaters is crucial for protection of the receiving water. The standard evaluation of effluent has been based on the control of global parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD, TOC, TDS, and TSS. However, these parameters cannot be used for evaluation of toxicity effect on receiving water due to some specific defects (Movahedian et al., 2005). The physicochemical analysis is not only complicated, expensive and time-consuming but also lacks information on the additive, antagonistic or synergistic effect of various chemicals on the biotic community in aquatic ecosystem (Tyagi et al., 2007); and that analytical approach does not allow for mixture toxicity, nor does it take into account the bioavailability of the pollutants present. Toxicity tests are bioassays used in pollution control for determining the maximum permitted concentration of a given chemical agent for the development /survival of certain living organisms (Pelegrini et al., 2007, Burratini et al., 2004,

273 Bertollet, et al., 1998 and Zagatho et al., 1987). The best way to evaluate effluent toxicity effect is to use biotoxicity test (David and Ford, 1992; Tchobanoglous et al., 2003). Water flea (Daphna magna) tests are currently the only type of fresh water invertebrate bioassays that are formally endorsed by international organizations such as the US EPA, the EEC and OECD and that are required by virtually every country for regulatory testing (Persone and Janseen, 1994). Daphnia magna is the most commonly used zooplankton in toxicological tests in wastewater treatment due to its short doubling time, high sensitivity, and simplicity. Therefore, it was used as an indicator in this study (APHA, AWWA, WEF, 1992; Official Gazette, 1996; USEPA,2000). Toxicity tests have been used for the evaluation of domestic and industrial wastewater effluents by many researchers (Tisler and Zagorc, 1999; Villegas-Navaro et. al., 1999; Richard et al., 2000). However, it has been observed that although the effluents met all physicochemical requirements, but regarding their toxicity, they may still cause considerable negative effects in receiving water (Movahedian et al., 2005). An awareness of environmental problems and potential hazards caused by industrial wastewater has prompted many countries to limit the discharge of polluting effluents into receiving water (Okerentugba and Ezeronye, 2003; Ezeronye and Ugbogu, 2004; Ezeronye and Ubalua, 2005). Textile manufacturing

274 yields a large quantity of black and highly toxic wastewater that contains high concentrations of chromium, phenol, suspended solids, and high values of biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand (FEPA, 1991). The biological treatment methods are attractive due to their cost effectiveness and the diverse metabolic pathways and versatility of microorganisms (Banett et al., 1996; Singh et al., 2004; Mendez-Paz et al., 2005; Pandey et.al., 2007). In this present work, acute toxicity using D. magna as a toxicity indicator was combined with physicochemical analysis to measure the efficiency of bioremediation process of textile industrial effluent using immobilized Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS Sources of Samples: The textile effluent was collected from International Textile Industry located in Nigeria. Effluent samples were collected in sterilized glass bottles, stored in ice and then transported to the laboratory after which they were stored at 40C to prevent deterioration. Physico-chemical analysis: The effluent collected was analyzed in triplicates in the laboratory for BOD, COD, turbidity, total solids and selected heavy metals (APHA, 1995; Ademoroti, 1996). Heavy metal content was analyzed by atomic

275 absorption spectrophotometer (model-GBC-932 plus) using standard protocol as described by Hayat et al. (2002). The procedure has been described previously in Ajao et al. (2011). Bioremediation Process Mixed culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis were immobilized on agar-agar following the method of Ellalah et al. (2005) with little modification. The bioremediation process has been described in previous work (Ajao et al., 2011) following the method of Margesin and Schinner (2005). Physicochemical parameters were determined after 15 days of bioremediation process. Ecotoxicological studies of both the raw and biologicallytreated effluent were carried out using Daphna magna as test organism. Daphnids employed as test organisms for the toxicological assay were from a single source and were identified using an appropriate taxonomic key (US EPA, 2000). Propagation and culture were carried out according to the methods of Davis and Ford (1992) and Movahedian et al. (2005). Determination of 48h LC50. A 250ml sample was taken from both the raw textile effluent and 15 days biologically-treated effluent; both samples were diluted by 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100% (v/v). The tests with Daphna magna were performed in 200 ml glass beakers. They were filled with 100ml test solution and ten (10)

276 daphnids were added to each solution. Each test sample container was examined and the number of dead organisms counted (looking for the absence of swimming movements). Daphnids in dilution water served as control. A test was regarded as valid when the mortality in the control is less than 10%. Five replicates per concentration were carried out and an aerator pump was used to provide oxygen. At the end of the experiments, acute toxicity unit (ATU) and efficiency values were determined following the method described by Movahedian and Asghari, (2005): A T U = 100/LC50 X 100 R = (ATUr ATUt) ATUr 100

where Efficiency.

ATUr = Raw effluent,

ATUt = Treated Effluent, R =

Results and Discussion Table 1 represents the results obtained after the initial physiochemical characterization of the sample of effluents that emanated from International Textile Industries, Nigeria and the values obtained after fifteen days of treatment using Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis immobilized on agar agar.

277 Table 1: Physicochemical parameters of raw, treated effluent and overall percentage reduction of textile industrial effluent.

Parameter

Raw Effluent

15days Treated Effluent

Overall % Reduction

Total solid (mg/l) Suspended solid(mg/l) Dissolved solid (mg/l) BOD (mg/l) COD (mg/l) Pb2+ Cu2+ Cr2+ Mn2+ Fe2+

43003.41 125018.93

2700.14 1502.18

93.7 88.0

32005.09

1207.78

96.3

7506.80 120010.23 0.100.02 1.0960.067 0.0610.00 1.050.032 8.730.314

230.13 2001.06 0.0620.03 0.430.131 0.0370.021 0.3130.02 0.510.127

96.9 83.3 38.0 60.8 39.3 70.2 94.2

278 The detection of the parameters mentioned in Table 1 alone is not sufficient as the wastewater generated from this textile industry may contain large amount of chemicals, many of which may be present in low and undetected concentrations and for many of them, the analytical techniques are inadequate (Tyagi et al., 2007). Therefore the above parameters and Daphnid test were used for the ecotoxicological assessment of the textile effluents. The high BOD (750 mg/ml) and COD (1200 mg/ml) values of the raw effluent obtained in this work are indications of the pollution strength of the effluent as suggested by Yusuff and Sonibare (2004). Similarly, Wynne et al. (2001) noted that textile effluents are highly coloured and saline, contain nonbiodegradable compounds, and are high in BOD and COD. They further reported that the presence of metals and other dye compounds inhibit microbial activity and in some cases may cause failure of biological treatment system. According to Sawyer and McCarthy (1978), high COD levels imply toxic condition and the presence of biologically resistant organic substances. Total solid determined in this study was very high (4300 32.41 mg/l) and this has great implications in the control of biological and physical wastewater treatment processes (Srivosta and Sinha, 1996; Tobata et al., 2007, Ashish and Yogendara, 2009).

279 The results obtained after the treatments indicate a very good relationship with the method of Raja Mohan and Karthikayam (2004) who reported the reduction of COD load of effluent below the upper limit of 250 mg/L. In this case, the overall COD reduction was from 1200 mg/l to 200 mg/l after 15 days of treatment. BOD (96.9%) and other physicochemical parameters such as TS (93.7 %) and DS (96.3%) were reduced considerably while some selected heavy metals were also removed. The result obtained for the present investigations showed that textile effluents are highly polluted and this is in close agreements with the works of Randall and King (1980), Kertel and Hill (1982) and Nosheen et al. (2002). The removal efficiency of the physicochemical parameters suggests the adoption of immobilized mixed culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis for the bioremediation of textile industrial effluents. The efficiency of the two organisms in reducing the toxicity of the effluent could be further improved by several strain improvement techniques such as protoplast fusion, mutagenesis and recombinant DNA technology. The efficiency of toxicity evaluation of textile effluents assessed based on physicochemical parameters alone has been said to be inadequate for a complete assessment (VillegasNavarro et al., 1999). Therefore in line with our findings, the use of D. magna as a toxicity indicator combined with

280 physiochemical characterization of the effluent is essential in the evaluation of effluent quality. Table 2 shows that the 48h- LC50 for the raw textile effluent and treated effluent was 60% and 80% respectively while acute toxicity unit was also found to be 1.667 and 1.25 respectively. Table 2: Average number of dead organisms after 48 hour contact time and five (5) repetitions from each Textile No of organisms in each dilution 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 1 1 2 2 4 4 6 7 8 10 Raw effluent (R) Deadorganism sample

Treated effluent (T) dead organism 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 3 5 6 6

281 LC50% (v/v) ATU Linear regression equation Standard deviation Coefficient of Variation 32.3% 25.1% 23.8 19.5 60% 1.667 Y = - 0.95 + 0.10x 80% 1.25 Y = 1.04 + 0.07x

Efficiency of the Treatment = 25%.

The linear regression equation was calculated as y = 0. 95+ 0.10x for the raw effluent while that of the biologically treated effluent was calculated as y =1.04+0.07x. The coefficient of variation for the raw and treated effluent was 32.3% and 25.1% respectively. As it is almost impossible to identify the specific substance responsible for the toxicity in the textile effluent, therefore, biotoxicity test is an economical and technical method for direct measurement of toxicity in industrial effluents (Movahedian et al., 2005). The removal efficiency of the physiochemical parameters alone is not sufficient in

282 obtaining reliable information on treated textile effluent. Toxicity test must be performed in combination with physiochemical analysis in order to ensure safety of aquatic lives.

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