Remediation of Brewery Wastewater Using Green Synthesized Nano-Particles

Abstract

The brewing industry consumes a large amount of water needed for brewing, rinsing, and cooling purposes, and therefore produces huge amount of effluents. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the use of Moringa oleiferra (MO) powder and synthesized 1.0 and 2.0 g TiO₂NPs as green synthesized nano-particles for the remediation of brewery wastewater using standard methods. The raw wastewater sample characterization for pH, BOD, COD, Lead and coliform count were: 7.26, 935, 1045, 0.083 mg/L and 136 cfu/100 mL respectively. Results of the UV – Visible spectrophotometer showed the maximum wavelength of 275, 275, 278 and 282.50 nm for 5:20, 10:20, 15:20, 20:20 of MO and TiO₂ ratio respectively, while the FTIR results show the presence of oxygen surface complex groups such as hydroxyl and carbonyl. The SEM reveals a porous surface area accompanied by several wide opening pores of different sizes and shapes, while EDX shows the concentration of titanium, Sulphur and silicon in percent weight; 85.79, 2.96 and 1.46 % respectively.  Results of the wastewater treated with 50 g defatted M. oleiferra revealed the removal efficiency of 47, 93.2, 56.2, 18, 31.3, 97, 76.1, 81 and 71% for Turbidity, COD, EC, Nitrate, Nitrite, BOD, TS, TDS and TSS respectively. Results of wastewater treated with 1.0 g of TiO₂ NPs showed the removal efficiency of 97.8, 94.64, 53.5, 34.2 and 35.1% for COD, BOD, EC, Nitrate and Nitrite respectively. That of 2.0 g of TiO₂ NPs showed the removal efficiency of 67, 58, and 87% for Cu, Pb, and Ag respectively. Conclusively, M. oleiferra and varying proportions of green synthesized TiO₂ NPs were effective in the remediation of the wastewater from brewery industry as it improves its physicochemical properties, but not so much for the heavy metal concentration.