Treatment of Waste Water from Natural Rubber Processing Plant

Gokul Ramanan, Vijayan N

Abstract: Rubber industry is an economically and socially significant industry. It consumes large volumes of water, uses many chemicals and produces enormous amount of effluent. It is later discharged into the water ways and causes pollution that affects human health. For solving the above problem, three bacterias were identified and isolated from rubber processing industry effluent - Arthrobacter sp, Pseudomonas sp and Bacillus sp. The selected bacterias were tested for its efficiency on the bioremediation of rubber processing industry effluent, individually and as a consortium. Reduction in the physicochemical properties of the effluent such as TS, BOD, COD and ammonia were observed after 15 days of incubation.Based on the data obtained in this study, it can be concluded that biomass of this bacterium can be used for bioremediation of rubber processing industry effluent with high efficiency.

Keywords: Bioremediation, Rubber processing industry, waste management, latex effluent treatment, Biological treatment, Rubber latex