Efficiency of Aquatic Macrophytes for Treatment of Milk Processing Unit Effluent - A Case Study

摘要

India is the world leader in milk production and contributes to about 22 percent of the world's production.Dairy industries generate a huge amount of wastewater during processing of milk.The effluent is characterized by high values of TDS,BOD and COD,In the present study an attempt was made to observe the efficiency of Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.,) Solms and Lemna minor in individual and in combination for the treatment of milk processing unit effluent under laboratory conditions.Maximum removal efficiency was observed as 74.38 % of Chemical Oxygen Demand (mg/L),73.94 % as of Biological Oxygen Demand (mg/L),58.69 % as of Total Dissolved Solids (mg/L),43.77 % of Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (mg/L) was obtained with Eichhornia sp.and Lemna sp.combination,whereas among the monoculture macrophytes,Eichhornia sp.performed better than Lemna sp..Thus a combination of Eichhornia sp.and Lemna sp.proved to be low cost sustainable method to treat dairy industry effluent.