DISTILLERY SPENTWASH AS ALTERNATIVE CARBON SOURCE IN  AEROBIC MICROBIAL FLOC TECHNOLOGY

M.Menaga*,S.Felix,A.Gopalakannan and P.Ezhilmathi

Distillery effluents are a major resource in the country with about 150 distilleries producing 900 million litres of alcohol annually resulting in 10,000 million litres of spent wash. The efficacy of aquaculture as a tool for treatment of such wastes has been demonstrated at Advanced Research Farm Facility, Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, Madhavaram. The parameters analyzed include pH, EC, TDS, Total Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium Hardness, Total alkalinity,Chloride,Fluoride,nitrite,Nitrate,Phosphate,Sulphate,DO,COD,BOD and TOC are higher side on the permissible limits of aquaculture. However due to its increased level of TOC makes it as an efficient carbon source in zero or minimal water exchange systems. The dark colour of spent wash due to the presence of water-soluble recalcitrant colouring compounds called melanoidins. This may affect the transparency of water and hence a minimum concentration of distillery spent wash along with rice for carbon enrichment. It also helps in treating the aquaculture effluents through microbes. Many trials on using carbohydrate enriched distillery spent wash in shrimp and GIFT tilapia rearing under aerobic microbial floc technology has been attempted successfully. Our findings recommended that on the application of 13 ppm distillery spent wash aids in treating aquaculture effluents and the pollutants of spentwash can also be degraded.