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Home , Activated sludge, Sequencing batch reactor, Sludge, Trickling filter, Wastewater

JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF VERMIFILTRATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE TREATMENT OF USING DETOXIFYING EARTHWORMS: A CASE STUDY

Prof. S. K Singh1, Twinkle Bhatia2

1,2 Department of Environmental Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi (110042), India

Received: 14 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: 8 July 2020

ABSTRACT: Wastewater is defined as the contaminated discharging from various sources such as residential, commercial, agricultural as well as industrial sites. It is produced by anthropogenic activities which is done at source through various processes. The wastewater from residences and organizations carries such as urine and human feces, food and wastes coming from washing etc. are categorized as sanitary sewage or domestic sewage. The sewage containing liquid and solids coming from the domestic sites can be treated with the help of various conventional processes such as , Activated Process, Rotating Biological Contractors, etc. However, each of the conventional process have some or the other disadvantages which slows down their efficiencies and thereby treated water is difficult to acquire from them. These disadvantages include more treating time, uneconomical, high operation and maintenance cost which may cause fly nuisance etc. Therefore, to treat such contaminated domestic wastewater, an economical, odor-free, eco-friendly with low operation and maintenance cost, technology is required. A novel technology called as Vermifiltration technology is one such eco-friendly technology which fulfills all the above criteria to treat the domestic sewage. This technology uses earthworms which act as a „‟. In a , removal ratios for BOD5, TSS, COD, and Fecal coliforms is about 90%, 85%, 98% and 99% respectively. The paper majorly discusses about the Vermifiltration process, its performance evaluation through sampling and data analysis of treated sewage of educational institute, its advantages and disadvantages, its scope in future along with some research work done using this novel technology to treat the wastewater.

KEYWORDS: domestic wastewater, Vermifiltration technology, treatment processes, water quality parameters

I. INTRODUCTION

Wastewater is any contaminated water which originates predominantly from Domestic, Commercial, and Industrial sites along with Surface water, Storm water as well as ground water. There are a number of treatment processes to remove the contamination and toxicity in wastewater. There are various sources of wastewater generation which includes residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial sites. Toxic wastewater may cause health risks such as Cholera, Amoebiasis, Giardia (also known as beaver fever) etc. There are various technologies that have been used in past to treat the wastewater but it has been found that none of the conventional technologies have qualities like odor-free, sludge-free, eco-friendly or is economical with low operation and maintenance cost altogether. One of the novel technologies which is being used nowadays which tackles all such problems is the Vermifiltration technology. It is similar to trickling filter as it is also an attached growth system. Vermifiltration technology do not require any external energy, except for pumping and due to this, it can be useful for treating wastewater in small communities also. In this technology, there is no sludge formation which needs extra spending on disposal. Also, it is an odor-free process and the treated water is clean enough to be used again in parks, gardens and even for farm . The major objectives of the study is: To evaluate the performance of Vermifiltration technology for the treatment of sewage through sampling & data analysis, to compare the pros and cons of the technology along with the research work done and to find the future scope of the novel Vermifiltration technology. II. VERMIFILTRATION TECHNOLOGY

Vermifiltration was primarily coined by researchers of the University of Chile in the year 1992 as cost-effective, no sludge producing and sustainable technology. In the process filters known as a Vermifilter is a type of

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 biofilter for the . works in an aerobic environment and wet substrate which provides the growth of as a known as slime layer. such as takes part in the degradation of the biochemically which are present in wastewater. Earthworms synchronize microbial biomass and activity by feeding on micro-organisms. Organic matter and Biofilm which is consumed by the earthworms is then digested into the organic matter turns into humus which is called as a vermicompost. This vermicompost is rich in minerals and nutrients as the earthworms consume the organic matter into their gut and we get degraded humus. It can be applied to soil to enhance the fertility of soil and structure. Earthworms used in Vermifiltration technology Earthworms known as the farmers best friend are segmented and tubular worms. The earthworm‟s digestive system is all over the length of its body and it respires through its skin. Earthworms excavate underpasses in the soil which as a result provides aeration to the soil thereby making way for hydrogen, , and nutrients to reach deep down the soil. They liberate waste known as castings from their bodies after organic matter is digested. Castings have various nutrients that the plant consume for their growth and nourishment. In Vermifiltration technology, earthworms play the major part in treating the wastewater by degrading the organic matter from it. Earthworms can also consume toxic to make the industrial wastewater. All the earthworm species are best suited under all climatic conditions. Niche diversification of earthworms used for Vermifiltration are as follows: S.no. Earthworm Moisture Weight of Active phase Existence of species content adult tolerance of of earthworms over earthworm earthworms earthworms the world (distribution) 1. Eisenia fetida 20 – 40% 0.3 – 0.7g 15 – 30oC Active Found in (Red worms) throughout temperate regions the year of Europe, India and North America 2. Eudrilus 20 – 40% 1.5 – 2.5g 18 – 35oC Active Found in South Eugeniae throughout America and (African night the year Tropical Africa crawler)

3. Perionyx 30 – 50% 0.8 – 1.2g 8 – 30 oC Active Exist in Tropical Excavatus throughout countries like (Indian blue the year India worm) 4. Drawida Barweli 40 – 50% 0.2 – 0.5g 20 – 30 oC Active in Found in Tropical months countries August to November 5. Lampito Mauritii 20 – 40% 0.8 – 1.5g 18 – 28 oC Active in Exist in Plains of months June Indian Peninsula to August Table 1: Detailed Description of Earthworm Species

Figure 1. Red Tiger Worms Figure 2. African Night Crawler Worms Formation of Vermifilter bed

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 Vermifilter is a cylindrical shaped biofilter having depth of 1-1.5 m and is divided into four parts in which at the bottom gravel of size 10-20 mm is placed, then another layer of gravel of size 2-4 mm is placed, sand of size 1-2 mm and garden soil bed for earthworm are placed in the vermifilter. A homogeneous mixture of Garden soil and Sawdust at a Volume Ratio of 3:1 is adopted usually to form the vermifilter bed. Natural ingredients such as wood chips, mud balls etc. can be used as filter media in place of garden soil or the mixture of the two can be taken can be in which earthworms resides. Vermifilters are naturally ventilated and is equipped with polypropylene perforated pipe to provide equal distribution of the wastewater and for aeration, a couple of pipes are inserted. The earthworms are given about a week of settling time in the soil bed so that they can acclimatize in the new environment.

Figure 3. Vermifilter bed with wood chips Performance analysis of Vermifilter on the basis of water quality parameters The performance evaluation has been done on the basis of testing parameters of wastewater quality and the quality parameters of treated effluent coming from the STP (1MLD) in Delhi Technological University Campus, Rohini, Delhi (India) and the data have been taken from Noida testing Laboratories. Testing of these quality parameters decides whether the quality of water is up to mark for land irrigation or not. Various parameters have been listed along with the values of wastewater before and after treatment with Vermifiltration Technology. SAMPLING AND ANALYSIS DATA (Noida Testing Laboratories) Sample received on:07/01/2020 Sample description: Treated sewage from STP Project name: DTU Bio-filter STP, Bawana Road, New Delhi Sample Quantity/Packing detail: 1 lit/Plastic cane Analysis Duration:07/01/2020 to 13/01/2020 S.no. Parameters Test Method Results Unit Limit asper MoEF/CPCB Norms 1 pH IS:3025(Part 7.68 - 6.5-9.0 -11) 2 TSS IS:3025(Part 18.6 mg/l 100 (max) -17) 3 COD IS:3025(Part 39.0 mg/l 250 (max) -58) 4 BOD3 IS:3025(Part 9.0 mg/l 30 (max) -44) 5 Oil & grease IS:3025(Part <1.0 mg/l 10 (max) -39) 6 TDS IS:3025(Part 998 mg/l No limit specified -16)

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 7 Faecal IS: 152 mg/l <1000 MPN/100ml coliform 1622:1981 (MPN/100ML ) Table 2. Wastewater Parameters Analysis

Figure 4. Color variation in raw and treated sewage Pros and Cons of Vermifiltration technology PROS OF VERMIFILTRATION (1) Vermifiltration is a sludge free and odorless technology. (2) A smaller number of mechanical equipments are required. (3) It is an economically affordable technology with environmentally sustainable features. (4) The nutrients and filtered water are used for irrigating useful vegetation. (5) Wastewater is treated in few days as the conventional treatment processes may take up several days to treat the wastewater. (6) High treatment efficiency is given with low space requirement. CONS OF VERMIFILTRATION (1) It requires a proper culturing of earthworms before wastewater is allowed to trickle over them. Moreover, Installation cost may be high. (2) Clogging of pores in the soil may occur due to the solids present in organic matter due to which fly nuisance may be a problem. (3) Wastewater going for the treatment in the vermifilter may have objectionable smell. III. RECENT RESEARCH WORK DONE ON VERMIFILTRATION TECHNOLOGY Y.S. Li et al., (2008) reviewed that organically polluted water can be treated using earthworms in this new technology called Vermifiltration. In this experiment, piggery (swine facility) associated pilot was developed with 66 swine for the treatment of swine manure and later preliminary results were provided. Results concluded that the population of the earthworms were grown by 30% within 4 weeks which showed the acclimation of the worms. Moreover, about 50% reduction was observed in emission for the whole system. Meiyan Xing et al., (2010) performed some experiments and studied the Vermifiltration technology. In the experiment, a filter was developed which was packed with ceramsite and quartz sands to treat Domestic wastewater. Results were concluded that the removal efficiencies of Vermifilter were BOD5 = 54.78% to 66.36%, COD = 47.3% to 64.7%, Suspended Solids = 57.18% to 77.90%, TN = 7.63% to 14.90% and NH4-N = 21.01% to 62.31% respectively. Another study was conducted to treat Wastewater from Petroleum industry which contained mixture of “Aliphatic” & “Aromatic” volatile petroleum hydrocarbons and “organochlorines” which originates from Cooling liquids, gear oil and petrol spill, waste transmission and Diesel oil (Rajiv K. Sinha et al., 2012). The chemicals taken into consideration were the total Petroleum hydrocarbon, Dichloroethane, Dichloromethane and t-butyl methyl ether. About 1,000 red worms were used for the treatment of industrial wastewater in the Vermifilter. Earthworms survived and tolerated toxic wastewater and rectified contamination as odorless and pale-yellow effluent. The hydrocarbons [C 10-C 14] were reduced by 99%, the [C 15-C 28] by 99.8% and the [C 29-C 36] by 99.7% respectively. Tarun Kumar et al., (2015) studied the Vermifiltration technology in which an experiment was carried out using various natural ingredients like wood coal, riverbed material, mud balls and

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 glass balls. Earthworm species used was Eisenia fetida. Performance of Vermifilter with various natural ingredients as media was studied. Results showed that average BOD removal was observed for different media as 81.2% (riverbed material), 74.5% (wood coal), 72.7% (glass balls), 70.9% (mud orb). Average COD removal was 72.3% (riverbed material), 64.6% (wood coal), 61.5% (glass orb), 59.8% (mud orb). removal was 75% (riverbed material), 64% (wood coal), 59% (glass orb), 55% (mud orb) respectively. Moreover, Divya C Das et al., (2015) developed a treatment process for ayurvedic effluents by combining Vermifiltration and microbial pre-treatment. Initially, the effluent was pretreated with a consortium of microbes and later fed to a Vermifilter. Solids, organic wastes, and heavy metals are absorbed and ingested through the body wall of the earthworms which was found to eliminate COD, BOD, TSS and TDS from the wastewater. The treated water was disinfected and clean enough to be utilized for irrigation. IV. SCOPE OF THE NOVEL TECHNOLOGY – VERMIFILTRATION The micro-organisms are playing an integral part in the industrial field of organic solid . The active participation of earthworms in balancing the pH, aeration, moisture is observed in various studies and is becoming more riveting to research about the various native species of earthworms in filter mud treatment as well as in other industrial solid wastes. Various studies have been done on the micro-organisms which has been secluded from Vermicompost and from skin with definite characteristics and enzymatic activities has divulged that the same could be used for treating other industrial wastes. Thus, in waste management research by using micro-organisms should be studied more and study about enzymatic activities such as cellulose, amylase, lipase, etc. for the possible utilizations in treatment of organic waste and treatments of wastewater. As the field of industrial waste management is latest, there is a brighter scope for new experimental designs so as to acquire a practical answer to the biodegradation process using bacteria, yeasts, fungi, etc. or in combination of these micro-organisms in a specific proportion. Moreover, Vermifiltration technology is used and has a good scope in treating wastewater from petroleum industry. Chemicals such as the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), dichloroethane (DCE), Dichloromethane (DCM) and t-butyl Methyl ether which are highly toxic in nature can be easily removed from the wastewater. Treatment of Wastewater coming from ayurvedic industries in nowadays a major concern. As this industry has grown more years due to high demand of the products, the unwanted matter including toxic wastewater and solid waste disposal is a problem. However, Vermifiltration technology is one such eco-friendly which can be used to treat contaminated water from such industry. This technology can remove BOD, COD, TSS and total coliform to a great extent and can balance the pH in the treated effluent, so that it can be used in irrigation and other purposes. Dairy industry is one of the high wastes producing industry. The wastewater produced from dairy industries have high total solids as well as organic loading. This contamination can be easily removed by Vermifiltration technology. Treated effluent can be used for horticulture and other purposes. V. CONCLUSION From the sampling analysis data acquired from the laboratory and the various successful research work done under Vermifiltration technology, it can be concluded that this technology is excellent for treating wastewater coming from domestic, industrial, institutional as well as agricultural sites. It is an eco-friendly technology in which the treated water is sludge-free as well as odor-free. The technology uses earthworms which are known as the „Unexpected warriors of mankind & companion of farmers‟ which gets multiplied in few days and therefore can treat great quantity of wastewater without any addition of chemicals. It is uncomplicated to run, and the installation & maintenance cost is also inexpensive. Moreover, the percentage removal of BOD, COD, TSS, and total coliform is up to a great extent. Thus, this technology proves to be the best novel technology from which the treated effluent can be used in horticulture and other purposes. VI. REFERENCES

[1]. Sinha, R. K., Chandran, V., Soni, B. K., Patel, U., & Ghosh, A. (2012). Earthworms: nature‟s chemical managers and detoxifying agents in the environment: an innovative study on treatment of toxic from the petroleum industry by Vermifiltration technology. The Environmentalist,32(4), 445–452. doi:10.1007/s10669-012-9409-2 [2]. Nie, E., Wang, D., Yang, M., Luo, X., Fang, C., Yang, X., … Zheng, Z. (2014). Tower bio-vermifilter system for rural wastewater treatment: bench-scale, pilot-scale, and engineering applications. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 12(3), 1053–1064. doi:10.1007/s13762-013-0479-6

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020 [3]. Kumar, T., Bhargava, R., Prasad, K. S. H., & Pruthi, V. (2015). Evaluation of Vermifiltration process using natural ingredients for effective wastewater treatment. Ecological Engineering, 75, 370–377. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2014.11.044 [4]. Timmer G, Albrecht JJ, Richter HThe biofiltration as method for wastewater treatment and pesticides removal (in German).KorrespondenzAbwasser. 1993; 5:764–780. [5]. image is taken from http://www.ethicsinfinity.com/EthicsProduct-sequencing- batch-re [6]. Boon, N., Pycke, B.F.G., Marzorati, M. and Hammes, F. (2011) Nutrient gradients in a granular biofilter drives bacterial community organization and dynamics. Water Research 45(19),6355- 6361. [7]. Li, Y. S., Robin, P., Cluzeau, D., Bouché, M., Qiu, J. P., Laplanche, A., … Callarec, J. (2008). Vermifiltration as a stage in reuse of swine wastewater: Monitoring methodology on an experimental farm. Ecological Engineering, 32(4), 301–309. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2007.11.010 [8]. H. H. J. Cox, “Performance of a styrene degradation biofilter containing the yeast, Exopholialajeanselmei”,Biotechnol. Bioeng, (53), pp. 259-266, 1997. [9]. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/12461/12/12_chapter%207.pdf [10]. YanLing M., JingLian Z., BoLun Y. Removal of H2S in waste gases by an activated carbon . Int. J. Biodeterior. Biodegrad. 2006; 57:93–98. [11]. Meiyan, X., Xiaowei, L., & Jian, Y. (2010). Treatment performance of small-scale vermifilter for domestic wastewater and its relationship to earthworm growth, reproduction and enzymatic activity. African Journal of Biotechnology, 9(44), 7513–7520. doi:10.5897/ajb10.811. [12]. Sinha Rajiv K., Bharambe Gokul and Chaudhari Uday, “ by vermifiltration with synchronous treatment of sludge by earthworms: a low-cost sustainable technology over conventional systems with potential for decentralization.” Environmentalist (2008), vol. 28, pp. 409-420. [13]. Samal, K., Dash, R. R., & Bhunia, P. (2017). Treatment of wastewater by vermifiltration integrated with macrophyte filter: A review. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 5(3), 2274–2289. [14]. Bimal Jain. (2019). A Project report on, “Decentralised wastewater treatmentsystem (DEWATS): A case studyof an educational institution.” [15]. Sinha R. K., Bharambe G. and Bapat P., “Removal of high BOD and COD loadings of primary liquid waste products from dairy industry by vermi- technology using earthworms.” IJEP (2007), vol. 27 (6), pp. 486-501.

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