A STUDY ON BIODEGRADATION OF LEATHER INDUSTRY EFFLUENT USING SARGASSUM SP.

Abstract

The Increase in the population since the 19^th century had initiated a demand for more food products and housing. Thus, the production of wastewater and the subsequent deterioration of environment due to the wastewater being discharged into watercourses have been increasing since the 1800’s. Many methods have been adopted for treating the effluent to reduce its harmful chemicals. But they are not an economic one. In this study, a new approach to treat effluent was focused on finding an economic way of treating effluent. The present study investigated the efficacy of various extracts of Sargassum sp. collected from Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu) in treating leather effluent. Five different solvent systems such as ethanol, methanol, water, benzene and chloroform were used for extracting phytochemical constituents from seaweeds. Then these extracts were used for treating leather effluent which was collected from Nagalkeni, Chennai, and Tamil Nadu. The results showed that reduction of various chemicals present in the treated effluent was more than 75% by all the algal extracts.