Effect of Oxidizers on Sulphide Removal from Hair Dissolving Liming Wastewater in Tannery

Liming and unhairing is the conventional operation in the tannery where raw animal skins are treated with sodium sulphide and calcium hydroxide to remove keratin proteins e.g., hair and wool epidermis and to dissolve nonstructural proteins. The hair dissolving liming process discharges wastewater containing soluble sulphide. In acidification, the sulphide in wastewater generates toxic hydrogen sulphide, which has a negative impact on the environment. In this present study, the efficiency of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and sodium chlorite (NaClO2) oxidizers are compared to remove sulphide from the hair dissolving liming wastewater. The soluble sulphide in the raw liming wastewater was 3666 mg/L. At optimized dose and pH for H2O2 and NaClO2 soluble sulphide in the solution were 109.2 and 54.6 mg/L, respectively. The sulphide removal efficiency for H2O2and NaClO2 were 97.0% and 98.5%, respectively at an optimum pH (pH 7). Before and after treatment the physicochemical parameters of the liming wastewater were analysed by observing different water quality parameters viz: pH, TDS, EC and salinity. At optimized condition TDS and salinity removal efficiency was 47.2%, 52.3% and 8.1%, 11.2% for H2O2 and NaClO2, respectively. This simple and easy method would be effective for treating hair dissolving liming wastewater in reducing soluble sulphide discharge from the tanneries. Journal of Engineering Science 12(3), 2021, 67-72

Insights into Asparaginase from Endophytic Fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae: Purification, Characterization and Antileukemic Activity

Endobiotic fungi are considered as a reservoir of numerous active metabolites. Asparaginase is used as an antileukemic drug specially to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The presented study aims to optimize the media conditions, purify, characterize, and test the antileukemic activity of the asparaginase induced from Lasiodiplodia theobromae. The culture medium was optimized using an experiment designed by The Taguchi model with an activity ranging from 10 to 175 IU/mL. Asparaginase was induced with an activity of 315 IU/mL. Asparaginase was purified with a specific activity of 468.03 U/mg and total activity of 84.4 IU/mL. The purified asparaginase showed an approximate size of 70 kDa. The purified asparaginase showed an optimum temperature of 37 °C and an optimum pH of 6. SDS reduced the activity of asparaginase to 0.65 U/mL while the used ionic surfactants enhanced the enzyme activity up to 151.92 IU/mL. The purified asparaginase showed a Km of 9.37 µM and Vmax of 127.00 µM/mL/min. The purified asparaginase showed an IC50 of 35.2 ± 0.7 IU/mL with leukemic M-NFS-60 cell lines and CC50 of 79.4 ± 1.9 IU/mL with the normal WI-38 cell line. The presented study suggests the use of endophytic fungi as a sustainable source for metabolites such as asparaginase, provides an opportunity to develop a facile, eco-friendly, cost-effective, and rapid synthesis of antileukemic drugs, which have the potential to be used as alternative and reliable sources for potent anticancer agents.

Purification and Enzymatic Properties of a New Thermostable Endoglucanase From Aspergillus Oryzae HML366

Aspergillus oryzae HML366 is a newly screened cellulase-producing strain. The endoglucanase HML ED1 from A. oryzae HML366 was quickly purified by two-step method ammonium sulfate precipitation and strong anion exchange column. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis indicated that the molecular weight of the enzyme was 68 kDa. The optimum temperature of the purified endoglucanase was 60 ℃ and the enzyme activity was stable below 70 ℃. The optimum pH was 6.5, and the enzyme activity was stable at pH between 4.5 to 9.0. The analysis indicated that additional Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Zn2+ reduced the catalytic ability of enzyme to the substrate, but Mn2+ enhanced its catalytic ability to the substrate.The Km and Vmax of the purified endoglucanase was 8.75 mg/mL and 60.24 μg/min·mL, respectively. Our study demonstrated that A. oryzae HML366 can produce a heat-resistant and wide pH tolerance endoglucanase HML ED1, which has potential industrial application value in bioethanol, paper, food, textile, detergent and pharmaceutical industries.

Characterization of Cypermethrin-degradation by a Novel Molybdenum-reducing Morganella sp. Isolated from Active Agricultural Land in Northwestern Nigeria

The increasing use of cypermethrin in agricultural fields, household and industrial applications for effective pest control had increased the global burden of the pollutant over the years. Consequently, there is an urgent need to devise techniques to eliminate this pollutant from the environment. A bacterium capable of degrading cypermethrin has been successfully screened and characterized. The bacterium was grown in a mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented with cypermethrin as its sole carbon and energy source at an optimum pH 7.5, temperature 40 ºC, a carbon source concentration of 4 g/L, optimum incubation time of 24 h and an inoculum size of 400 µL. The potential of Morganella sp. to degrade cypermethrin makes it an important instrument for the degradation of cypermethrin. This knowledge may be useful for the optimization of environmental conditions for cypermethrin bioremediation and important for detoxification of cypermethrin polluted sites.

Analysis of the optimum pH and salinity conditions for the cultivation and biomass production of Chlorella vulgaris from cassava waste

Biofuel serves as an alternative energy to the common fossil fuels currently in use globally and are drawing increasing attention worldwide as substitutes for petroleum-derived transportation fuels to help address challenges associated with petroleum derived fuels. Third generation biofuels, also termed advanced biofuels, are produced from fast growing microalgae and are potential replacements for conventional fuels. The growth and biomass production of these microalgae is dependent on the conditions they are cultivated such as pH and Salinity. Cassava waste mixtures were cultivated on Chlorella vulgaris stock culture at different concentration ratio at ambient temperature, natural light and dark conditions at 670nm absorbance for 14 days. Optimum growth was obtained at 160:40 for cassava peel water to cassava waste water CP:CW. pH variations 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 were checked to determine the optimum pH for the growth and biomass production of Chlorella vulgaris on the optimum cassava waste mixture concentration. It revealed that at pH 6.5, optimal growth and biomass production was achieved, minimal growth was observed at pH 8.0 while minimal biomass was produced at pH 9.0. Salinity variations of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 mg/l were used to determine the growth response and biomass production of Chlorella vulgaris. It revealed that salinity variation at 10ppm will be necessary for highest growth on the cassava waste as well as in biomass production. The use of optimal pH and salinity can significantly increase biomass production thus enhancing biofuel production.

Jeotgalibacillus Auranticolor sp. nov., Isolated from Freshwater Collected from Baiyangdian Lake Lake, China

A novel Gram-positive, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, orange-pigmented bacterial strain, designated R-1-5s-1T, was isolated from Baiyangdian Lake, China. Strain R-1-5s-1T grew at 15-37℃ (optimum 37℃) and pH 7-11 (optimum pH 8) in Luria-Bertani medium. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain R-1-5s-1T was assigned to the genus Jeotgalibacillus and showed the closest relationships with Jeotgalibacillus salarius ASL-1T (97.69%), Jeotgalibacillus alkaliphilus JC303T (97.29%), Jeotgalibacillus marinus DSM 1297T (97.15%), Jeotgalibacillus campisalis SF-57T (97.01%), and Jeotgalibacillus spp. (≤ 97%). The predominant polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol; the major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, iso-C17:0, and anteiso-C17:0; and the major respiratory quinones were MK-7 and MK-8. The peptidoglycan type of the cell wall was A1a linked via L-lysine as the diamino acid. The G+C content was 43.6%, and the draft genome size of strain R-1-5s-1T was 3.4 Mbp. Between strain R-1-5s-1T and the related strain J. salarius ASL-1T, the ANI and dDDH relatedness values were 78.9% and 20.8%, respectively. Phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and genotypic analyses revealed that strain R-1-5s-1T is a novel species in the genus Jeotgalibacillus, for which the name Jeotgalibacillus auranticolor sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is R-1-5s-1T (=CGMCC 1.13567T=KCTC 43038T).

Serbuk Biji Asam Jawa (Tamarin Dusindica L) untuk Pengelolaan Limbah Industri Cair Tempe (Studi Kasus Mataram)

Most of the tempe industry have not been equipped with a waste water treatment unit. It is usually a water soaked soybeans and soybean excess water is still discharged directly in the into the environment. Liquid waste industrial of tempeh contain high organic materials. One of the process for wastewater treatment is coagulation with the addition of a positively charged polyelectrolyte in tempeh wastewater as negatively charged. One of plants in Indonesia that can be used as an alternative coagulant is tamarind seeds (Tamarindus indica, L).it can be used for wastewater treatment is more economical. The aims of this experiment is to determine the optimum stirring time, optimum pH of the waste and optimum coagulant dosage for treatment of the tempeh wastewater with coagulant tamarind seed powder. The experiment studied were stirring time, the pH of thetempeh wastewater and coagulant dosage to the percentage decrease in turbidity and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand). The variables in the experiment were stirring time (10,15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes), the pH of the waste (3; 3.5; 4; 4 and 5) and the dosage of tamarind seed powder (100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 mg / L). COD testing methods is closed reflux method by spectrophotometry and turbidity testing using Turbidimeter. The results showed that the with coagulant tamarind seed powder effectively lowered cod levels and the dryness of tempeh liquid industrial waste. The optimum pH obtained is pH 4, optimum stirring time is 25 minutes and the increase in optimum coagulant dose is 500 mg with a percentage decrease in COD levels and noise by 90.57% and 78.94%. Key words: liquid waste; sour power; turbidity; COD

Removal of Tartrazine Dye Using Kyllinga Brevifolia Extract And Silver Nanoparticles As Catalysts

The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of kyllinga brevifolia (KB) with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as catalysts in the removal of tartrazine dye. The experiment was carried out in batch mode. Different parameter such as temperature, initial concentration, contact time and pH were studied. It was found that the equilibrium was achieved in 20 min and the optimum pH was 2. The removal of dye highest at 80 °C, which is 64%. From an initial concentration of 60 ppm and onwards, the removal efficiency of dye was the most (62.34%) when compared to other intial concentrations. The use of a AgNPs as catalyst increases the removal efficiency 20.68% more effective than without a catalyst. Significant of this study is to show the effect of AgNPs as catalyst in tartrazine dye removal from wastewater.

Membrane-less microbial fuel cell: effect of pH on the electricity generation powered by municipal food waste

Fossil fuels have supported the industrialization and economic growth of countries during the past centuries and it is clear that they cannot indefinitely sustain in a longer time. In this study, membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC) with mediators-less and air cathode had potential solution to generate electricity power and at the same time could reduce the abundant of food waste (1.64 kg/daily, around 8 tonnes/year) which dumped in the landfill and it’s cost effective device. The ML-MFC operated electrochemically incorporate electrogenic bacteria (EB) acted as a biocatalyst in order to produce electricity. The performance and optimization performance of food waste was evaluated using one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) method and it was focused to pH for power generation. To determine the generated electricity the polarization curve was used to evaluate the performance of ML-MFC. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of food waste was studied. The optimization of pH condition in ML-MFC was ranging from 7 to 9. Results showed that pH 8 was the optimum pH for EB strain, Bacillus Subtilis, with the high voltage (807 mV), EB biomass (15.46 mg/L), and power density (373.3 mW/m2) generated. Clearly the pH environment condition affected the efficiency of ML-MFC performance. The increase in EB biomass also increased the voltage in the ML-MFC, proving that EB biomass and voltage were associated with growth.

Poly(vinyl alcohol)-based Electrospun Nanofibers: Characterization and Phytase Immobilization

The aim of this study is to immobilization phytase obtained from cowpea seeds into nanofiber-based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and to investigate kinetic properties, optimal pH, and temperature of free and immobilized phytase. The structural analysis and morphological properties of the nanofibers are carried out via SEM and XRD. The results indicated that enzyme stability, pH, and thermal stability are increased after immobilizing phytase into the nanofiber. The optimum pH and temperature of the free and immobilized phytase are found as pH 5.0 and 45-65 oC, respectively. These results indicated that the immobilized phytase could be a good candidate for agriculture, animal feed, food, and medical applications.