Norshuhaila Mohamed Sunar

Experimental Study for Phycoremediation of Botryococcus sp. On Greywater

Greywater (GW) is identified as waste disposal from home activites that is discharging from laundry, bath and wash-basin. GW useful in irrigation of a garden and aids to reduce cost as well as maintain the environmental prosperity. This paper discussed the effectiveness of Botryococcus sp. to clean GW in phycoremediation treatment. This process involves as growing the Botryococcus sp. in the GW which is contributing to utilize supplements in GW for its grow. The results indicated that Botryococcus sp. is effective to reduce COD (88%), BOD (82%), TIC (76%), TC (58%), TN (52%), TOC (39%), Phosphate (37.5%) and pH (7%) for 100% concentration of GW. Meanwhile, for the 50% of GW concentration Botryococcus sp. capable to remove such as COD (83%), TIC (82%), BOD (68%), TN (67%), Phosphate (36.8%), TC (34%), TOC (31%) and pH (1.2%). Then, the study concludes that Botryococcus sp. can grow effectively in GW and be able to reduce the rate of nutrient in GW.

Phycoremediation of dairy wastewater by using green microlgae: botryococcus sp.

Dairy wastewater are usually much polluted due to the high level of nutrient content such as phosphate, nitrate, sulfate etc. The pollution level are indicated by few characteristics such as BOD (243 mg/L), COD (324 mg/L), pH (9.08), Total Nitrogen (65.06 mg/L), Total Organic Carbon (143.3 mg/L), Total Carbon (312.9 mg/L) and Inorganic Carbon (169.6 mg/L). In this study, Botryococcus sp., a species of green microalgae are used to determine whether it can purify dairy wastewater. In spite of that, the microalgae growth over phycoremediation process also determined daily based on hemocytometer counting. From 100% concentration of dairy wastewater, Botryococcus sp. was capable to reduce the parameters such as BOD of 73.3%, TOC of 65.1%, TC of 61.4%, IC of 58.3% and COD of 48.8% on the 15 days of phycoremediation. Meanwhile, for the 50% of dairy wastewater, the same microalgae be able to remove the parameter such as phosphate of 78.7%, BOD of 73.8%, TOC of 70%, TC of 68,8%, IC of 59.4% and COD of 50%. The overall result from this study shown that the Botryococcus sp. is useful to reduce the inorganic and organic pollutant in dairy wastewater and could be potential to be used for any different wastewater.

The Effectiveness of Pseudomonas putida Atcc 49128 as Biodegradable Agent in Biodiesel Soil Contamination

Soil contamination has become a major problem because of the large amounts of manmade pollutants and chemicals that have been put into the environment. This study aims to determine the growth rate of Pseudomonas putida to treat soil that has been contaminated with pure biodiesel, B100. The effectiveness on bioremediation have been conducted by examined several physico-chemical tests for biodiesel-contaminated soil before and after seeding with Pseudomonas putida. The physico-chemical tests involved were pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfate and organic carbon. The experimental results show that after 20 days pure culture Pseudomonas putida able to remove approximately 69 % of nitrogen, 27 % of sulphate, however, no removal for phosphate and organic carbon. The results indicated that the application of this bacterium is suitable for the degradation of nitrogen and sulfate in biodiesel-contaminated soil. The Pseudomonas putida growth has slightly increased from Day 2 (3.0 × 107 CFU/ml) to Day 8 (4.1 × 107 CFU/ml). After Day 8, the amount of Pseudomonas putida slightly starts to deplete until Day 20 (4 × 106 CFU/ml). The available nutrient in the sample is low once the bacterium has used them as source of carbon and energy before Day 8. Overall, this study proved that Pseudomonas putida is the effective microorganism and potentially exploit as useful oil-soil biodegradable agent.

The Effectiveness of Bioremediation Treatment for Diesel-Soil Contamination

Abstract. Soils are increasingly threatened by spillage of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel fuel, gasoline at oil refineries, underground storage tanks and pump stations pipelines. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Pseudomonas putida as oil-biodegradable agent in soil contaminated with diesel (D100). The effectiveness on bioremediation have been conducted by examined several physico-chemical tests on diesel-contaminated soil before and after seeding with P. putida. The spillage stimulation of D100 was conducted at laboratory scale for 24 days of incubation time. The results show that the bioremediation treatment able to remove up to 82%, 55%, 48%, and 34% of nitrogen, total organic carbon, phosphate, sulfate and, respectively. The pH of soil sample was changed from pH 7.8 (Day 0) to 6.78 (Day 24) after the treatment. Meanwhile, the moisture content in the sample has increased from 39% (Day 0) to 59% (Day 24). All of these results show the good indication of quality improvement of polluted soil after treated with P. putida. It is apparent from the acquired results that the application of P. putida is suitable as effective microorganism and potentially exploits as useful diesel-soil biodegradable agent in polluted soil.

Extraction of hydrocarbons from freshwater green microalgae (Botryococcus sp.) biomass after phycoremediation of domestic wastewater

ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to analyze the efficiency of Botryococcus sp. in the phycoremediation of domestic wastewater and to determine the variety of hydrocarbons derived from microalgal oil after phycoremediation. The study showed a significant (p < 0.05) reduction of pollutant loads of up to 93.9% chemical oxygen demand, 69.1% biochemical oxygen demand, 59.9% total nitrogen, 54.5% total organic carbon, and 36.8% phosphate. The average dry weight biomass produce was 0.1 g/L of wastewater. In addition, the dry weight biomass of Botryococcus sp. was found to contain 72.5% of crude oil. The composition analysis using Gas Chromatogram - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) found that phthalic acid, 2-ethylhexyltridecyl ester (C29H48O4), contributed the highest percentage (71.6%) of the total hydrocarbon compounds to the extracted algae oil. The result of the study suggests that Botryococcus sp. can be used for effective phycoremediation, as well as to provide a sustainable hydrocarbon source as a value-added chemical for the bio-based plastic industry.

The potential of biodiesel production from Botryococcus sp. biomass after phycoremediation of domestic and industrial wastewater

The aim of the present work is to investigate the capability of microalgae, known as Botryococcus sp. for wastewater phycoremediation and potential biodiesel production. The vertical closed photobioreactors (PBR) were employed and supplemented with domestic wastewater (DW) and food industry wastewater (FW) at different batch of study. The cultivation was conducted under natural outdoor condition for 12 days. The results revealed that the removal of pollutant and nutrients presence in both wastewaters with constantly decrease proportionate to the increase in cultivation time. The chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP) and total organic carbon (TOC) were successfully removed up to 84.9%, 69.3% and 93.3%, respectively in DW while 96.1%, 35.5% and 87.2%, respectively in FW. The result on FT-IR analysis of microalgae oil was shown comparable with conventional palm oil based biodiesel in term of IR spectra. This study suggests that Botryococcus sp. has tremendous potential in pollutants removal and biodiesel production for renewable energy development.

The Evaluation of Indoor Microbial Air Quality in Two New Commissioning Higher Educational Buildings in Johor, Malaysia

The proliferation of indoor airborne microorganism in public institutional buildings such as schools and universities is often regarded as a potential health hazards to the buildings’ users. This issue is not new in Malaysia, a country with humid climate which favours the growth of microorganism. However, there is lack of research’s data, especially in higher institutional buildings in this country. The assessment of the indoor air quality is conducted in a university’s two new commissioning buildings located at Southern Peninsular of Malaysia. Both buildings utilized centralized air conditioning system. Concentrations of airborne microorganism were determined using a single-stage impacter (biosampler) as per requirement of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Manual Analytical Method 0800. The acquired readings were compared to the standard level determined in Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality (ICOP IAQ) 2010. Other parameters such as relative humidity, temperature, and air velocity were recorded along the assessment. The mean concentrations of the total bacteria at the affected area of the two buildings are 1102.5 CFU/m3 and 813 CFU/m3 respectively and it is significantly higher compared to the maximum exposure limit of 500 CFU/m3. While, the mean concentration of total fungi at the affected area for two buildings are 805.7 CFU/m3 and 509 CFU/m3 respectively which are both higher than the reading of outdoors and unaffected indoor area although slightly lower than the maximum exposure limit of 1000 CFU/m3. This study provides a glance of the poor indoor microbiological air quality in new higher institutional buildings in this humid region.

The biocidal effect of potassium sorbate for indoor airborne fungi remediation

AbstractIndoor air contamination by fungi is common nowadays. It creates health problems, especially in people with asthma. Approximately 80% of these patients are allergic to fungus. In this study, a bioactive compound, potassium sorbate which is actively used in the food industry for antifungal purposes was evaluated for its ability to treat indoor airborne fungal contamination in two higher educational buildings at a university in Johor, Malaysia. Indoor air samplings of fungi were carried out at three different sites in each building using malt extract agar (MEA), which were incorporated with the mentioned biocide as culture media. It was shown under indoor and outdoor conditions that fungi were able to colonize untreated MEA. The effectiveness of the biocide to prevent the growth of fungi on treated MEA was compared with that of untreated MEA. It was clearly shown that the biocide can effectively prevent the airborne fungal growth at all six sites as the number of colony forming units was drastically...

In Vitro Inhibitory Assay of an Isolated Indoor Airborne Fungus from an Institutional Building of Computer Education by Using Potassium Sorbate

Currently, one of the main aspects of health and safety concern to facility owners and supervisors is indoor air quality. Meanwhile, pollution by airborne fungi in these facilities are acquiring more and more consideration due to its possible harmful side effects such as threats to occupiers’ health and damage to building parts and furniture. One of the recommendations to solve these indoor fungi pollution is bioactive compound which can act as a biocide. However, assessment of this compound in the real environment is often time-consuming and impractical. In this study, a bioactive compound, potassium sorbate which is commonly applied in food manufacturing was assessed for its efficiency as a biocide to restrict the growth of an isolated airborne fungus using an in vitro inhibition assay. The fungus was isolated from a new building of tertiary education of computer studies. It was grown on both biocide-incorporated MEA and untreated MEA. The diameter of the fungal colonies was noted time to time. The diameter of the colony of the treated fungus was downsized by 41.25% averagely in comparison with the untreated fungus. It was shown that potassium sorbate can restrict the growth rate of the isolated airborne fungus.

Bioremediation of Biofuel-Soil Contamination by Using Pseudomonas putida

Abstract. The commercialization of biodiesel/diesel blends on the market can cause environmental damages due to spills. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Pseudomonas putida as oil-biodegradable agent in soil contaminated with biodiesel/diesel blend (B20). The effectiveness on bioremediation have been conducted by examined several physico-chemical tests on biodiesel/diesel-contaminated soil before and after seeding of P. putida. The spillage stimulation of B20 was conducted at laboratory scale for 24 days of incubation time. The results show that the bioremediation treatment able to remove up to 82%, 77%, 16%, and 10% of nitrogen, phosphate, sulfate and total organic carbon, respectively. The pH of soil sample was changed from pH 7.45 (Day 0) to 7.25 (Day 24) after the treatment. Meanwhile, the moisture content in the sample has increased from 44.11% (Day 0) to 50.35% (Day 24). All of these results show the good indication of quality improvement of polluted soil after treated with P. putida. It is apparent from the acquired results that the application of P. putida is suitable as effective microorganism and potentially exploits as useful oil-soil biodegradable agent in polluted soil.