Rice husks as a microbial source for wastewater treatment

Water contaminated with organic carbon and nitrogen compounds is one of the most important water problems in the contemporary world. The main problems related to the discharge of these compounds into natural environments are eutrophication and oxygen depletion. In view of this scenario, the objective of this work was to assess the use of rice husks for the production, growth, and propagation of microorganisms, and the use of these microorganisms for the removal of organic matter and nitrogen compounds in wastewater treatments. The following treatments were evaluated: industrial wastewater (IW), IW + rice husks, IW + sawdust and IW + dried leaves of trees. The effluent was treated with 3% (v v(-1)) inoculum of microorganisms obtained from rice husks as substrate, applied in a batch system. A solution of 30 mg L-1 of N-NO3 containing 3% (v v(-1)) of microorganisms obtained from rice husks was used as substrate to evaluate the reusability and performance of N-NO3 removal. Higher microbial growth was found when the rice husks was used as substrate. The chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and total solid contents were reduced above 80%. The kinetic evaluation showed that total nitrogen and nitrate can be reduced by up to 80% after 72 h. Moreover, the reuse test showed the stability of the microbial activity after 7 days of use. This study showed that rice husks is an interesting and more sustainable source of carbon for microbial growth, with effective use in wastewater treatments.