An Analysis upon Impact of Distillery Industry Effluent on Environment: Exploring the Challenges and Solutions for Distillery Industry Effluent Pollution

Abstract

Growing industrial establishments can results in hazards on the local environment in the city if proper attention is not paid. One of the major pollution sources is Distillery effluent. The Distillery industries are rapidly expanding in sub metropolitan cities. They discharge their untreated wastes directly into the natural environments which cause various adverse effects on soil, water, air and health. It also affects the farm animals. They drink it and resulted in increased livestock mortality, poor health, and reduced milk yield. Even the human beings lived in Distillery Effluent Polluted Area are affected by skin allergies, headache, vomiting sensation, irritating eyes, fever and stomach pain. This kind of water have dissolved impurities like carbonate, bicarbonate, sulphate , chloride of Calcium , Magnesium , Iron, Sodium & Potassium and colloidal impurities like coloring matter, organic waste ,finely divided, silica & clay. In the present paper, chemical analysis of Distillery effluent and its impact on environment are discussed.. It is analyzed that distillery industry produces a huge amount of wastewater which is highly polluted and having very high Chemical & Biological Oxygen Demand (COD and BOD), dark brown reddish color and have high load of organic matter, when discharge into natural water bodies, causes severe environmental pollution. Some of the contaminants, such as certain level of minerals or compounds are not only harmful to health, but also create a long term effects.India is the fourth largest producer of ethanol in the world and the second largest in Asia. Though, the alcohol production from starchy material is also practiced in India but on a very limited scale, most of the Indian distilleries use sugarcane molasses as raw material. Distillery ranks as the top most industry among the list of 17 heavily polluting industries identified by Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India.The present study was conducted to find out the economic pollution reduction technique of distillery effluent that possesses a se¬rious environmental problem. The distillery effluent is generally highly acidic (pH 3.8 - 4.4) with high rates of BOD 45000- 60000 mg/l & COD 70000 – 98000 mg/l and also suspended solids (2000 -14000 mg/l). Currently different treatment techniques are used to treat distillery effluent which includes fungal treatment, adsorption techniques, Electro sorption, filtration, biological treat¬ment, etc. but no treatment method alone give the desired goal to treat the distillery effluent effectively and efficiently therefore further research study in this area should be carried out to prevent surface and ground water pollution.