title: Enhancing organic matter removal, biopolymer recovery and electricity generation from distillery wastewater by combining fungal fermentation and microbial fuel cell.
abstract: For enhancing organic matter removal from cereal-based distillery stillage two-stage treatment consisting of fermentation by Aspergillus awamori followed by microbial fuel cell (MFC) is proposed. Considerable reduction in total and soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) up to 70% and 40%, respectively, along with 98% reduction of suspended solids (SS) has been achieved during fungal pretreatment. The process generated chitosan, a useful fermentation byproduct from fungal mycelia, as 0.6-0.7g/l of settled sludge with mycelium (3.8% solids). Prior treatment of wastewater with fungal strain enhanced the power generation in MFC by 2.9 times at an organic loading rate of 1.5kgCOD/m(3)day, demonstrating soluble COD reduction of 92% in MFC. While treating distillery wastewater, this two-stage integrated biological process demonstrated overall 99% COD removal and almost complete removal of SS, delivering ample scope for scale-up and industrial application to offer effective solution for distillery wastewater treatment.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh Ray
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India. Electronic address: ghangrekar@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ghangrekar
mesh_terms: D001230:Aspergillus / Q000378:metabolism*; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D048271:Chitosan / Q000378:metabolism; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D005285:Fermentation; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D010710:Phosphates / Q000032:analysis; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D048271:Chitosan; D009584:Nitrogen; D010710:Phosphates; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Aspergillus awamori; Chitosan recovery; Distillery wastewater treatment; Fungal pretreatment; Microbial fuel cells