Major Achievements

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor removes organic waste from municipal wastewater with 95% efficiency With the support of BIRAC, a technology for removing organic waste from municipal waste water at 95% efficiency has been developed. The technology, called anaerobic membrane bioreactor AnMBR (2000L), is a product of a company called Thermax. Vortex diode based cavitation devices for enhancing biogas yield and throughput of anaerobic digesters during treatment of wastewater in distillery industry A technology for treatment of wastewater from the distillery industry with enhanced biogas yield, called Vortex diode based cavitation devices, has been developed by a company called Vivira Process Technologies. The technology has shown an increase of 15% in biogas yield over currently available technologies at trials carried out in Dhampur Sugar Mills and Lokmangal Sugar Mills. The Rhino Digester -- cost effective appliance for decentralized waste processing developed Localised treatment of organic waste generated in apartments and societies is an urgent requirement in rapidly developing cities. Keeping this in mind, BIRAC has supported a technology called Rhino Digester. It is a novel, robust, versatile, modular, compact and cost-effective appliance for decentralized waste processing which can obviate requirements for costly disposal and treatment system for entire cities or regions. It can be installed at the source of waste generation--society, apartment or organization, and can convert all organic content of the waste into readily usable resources. A prototype of the appliance has been installed in a canteen to get feedback in a field situation. Co-treatment of domestic septage & municipal solid waste & landfill leachate producing biogas and biofertilizer Domestic septage, municipal solid waste and landfill leachate are major sources of waste from cities. Treatment systems that can tackle these are major requirements for sustainable cities. In order to meet this need, a technology has been developed for co-treatment of these wastes by using a process called dry thermophilic anaerobic digestion (DTAD). The technology produces bio-fertilizer. DTAD of 5 L volume has been fabricated and is being operated in a steady state. A remote monitoring system has been developed and is under testing. Molasses Spent Wash Treatment: Decolourization, Detoxification leading to algal biofuels A new technology supported by BIRAC can remediate pollution from wastewater of sugar or distillery industry and use it to grow algal biofuel. Microbes to be used in this process have been screened, isolated and optimized. The fungi that produces enzymes for decolourisation of the water, has been grown. De-metalizer Kit for heavy metal removal from mining wastewater Surface water and groundwater around mines are often laced with heavy metals, making them unsuitable for use. A technology for removing such heavy metal ions from the surface and underground water bodies, called novel de-metalizer kit, has been developed from biopolymers. Bio-sorption was carried out for the removal of lead ions from aqueous solution containing known concentration of Lead-Pb (II) by implementing hybrid polymers as biosorbent. Nearly 65% of the contaminated lead ions could be removed through dipping approach, whereas nearly 83% of such ions could be removed through direct addition approach at higher concentration level. Conversion of waste to green chemicals An economical, end-to-end process to convert waste to chemicals via biogas has been developed with the help of engineered strains. Lactate dehydrogenase genes from different hosts have been expressed and tested in methanotrophs. Recombinant strains show higher levels of lactic acid compared to wild strains.