The efficacy of integrated vermifiltration technology for treatment of food analysis laboratory wastewater

The macrophyte-assisted vermifiltration (MAVF) technology was applied for treatment of food analysis laboratory wastewater at Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Sri Lanka for the first time. Three laboratory-scale subsurface vertical flow units were established:1) without earthworms and plants (Control unit), 2) with earthworms (Eisenia fetida) (vermi-filtration unit (VF unit), 3) with both earthworms and macrophytes (Canna indica) (MAVF unit). Wastewater was fed batch-wise with a feeding rate of 10 mL/min and seven days hydraulic retention time (HRT) for eight consecutive batches. Physiochemical parameters, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Phosphorus (TP), Total Nitrogen (TN), pH, of the influent and effluent of all three units were analyzed to investigate the treatment efficiencies. One-Way ANOVA was performed to evaluate the significant differences in treatment efficiencies. The mean COD removal efficiencies of the control unit, VF unit, and MAVF unit were 60.2% + 10.7, 71.6+ 8.07%, and 72.0% + 8.86, respectively. Average TN removal efficiencies of the control unit, VF unit, and MAVF unit were 8.05 % + 5.75, 10.9+6.4 %, and 24.9 % +12.84, respectively. Average TP removal efficiencies were 35.84 % + 17.5, 35.84 % + 17.5 %, and 40.0 % +16.76, respectively. The COD removal displayed promising results, whereas the means for enhancing TP and TN removal should be further studied. The findings of this study sensitizes the testing laboratories to go green by adopting in-house cost effective laboratory wastewater treatment systems.