Mitigating the Harmful Impacts of Industrial Effluents; The Potential of Biological Treatment Techniques

Abstract

The leather and chemical industries produce a large volume of effluents that contain harmful chemicals, heavy metals, and nutrients. These effluents contribute to pollution and have adverse effects on the environment, aquatic life, animals, and humans. To mitigate these effects, biological techniques such as degradation via algae, fungi, and bacteria have been implemented for the treatment of these effluents. The article discusses the harmful impacts of these industrial effluents and the potential of biological treatment methods to address them. The chemical industry generates effluent containing toxic, carcinogenic, and mostly non-biodegradable chemicals, leading to acute and chronic health effects. Similarly, leather industry generates heavy metals and toxic compounds in effluents that are discharged into aquatic life such as rivers, ponds and streams without further treatment. They have massive chronic effect on primarily them and ultimately up in the food chain. Various bioremediation techniques such as bio augmentation involving multiple microbes like bacteria, fungi and algae have and can be used to treat such effluents biologically and eco-friendly. Chromium (III) and chromium (VI) can be treated effectively only by such techniques. Furthermore, SBR technique and its multiple variants are applied for treatment of potentially toxic chemicals present in chemical industrial effluent. All such techniques provide strong biological substitution to prevalent physical or chemical methods of remediation.