Conference Publications

Bio-oxidation is the process of oxidation of metal sulfide using variety of microorganisms for leaching the metal. The aim of the present study was to assess the capacity of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, on the bioleaching of lead from galena concentrate. While the process carried out under the sulfur concentration about 6%, the results showed that the maximum of 79.8% Pb was leached from the galena.

The aim of this paper is to explore the enhanced methods of transesterification and pyrolysis of waste cooking oil and plastic scrap. Pyrolysis of plastic waste produces bio-oil. The waste cooking oil from hotel industries are subjected to transesterification. The combined bio-diesel and bio-oil from pyrolysis are subjected to cracking reaction which yields bio-diesel with excellent quality for using in automobile engines and to synthesis petrochemicals.

Paper recycling plant is one in which waste paper is recycled to form a new product that is a recycled paper. In India there are vast number of paper recycling units are present that recycles waste paper to a useful writing papers, craft papers, tissue papers, chart papers, and some other paper items like paper bags, files etc. Periyar Paper Reprocessing Unit in Periyar Maniammai University. Here we described process as process techniques in waste to useful product.

The main benefit of the recycling is a double decrease of the environment loading, known as an environmental impact reducing. From the first view point, the natural resources conserves at side of the manufacturing process inputs, from the second view point, the harmful compounds amount leaking to the environment decreases at side of the manufacturing process outputs. The paper production from the recycled fibers consumes less energy; conserves the natural resources viz. wood and decreases the environmental pollution.

Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit), the widely cultivated and popular food throughout the tropical regions of the world and its nativity roots to a part of south and South East Asia. The need for an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production due to consumption of vegetable oil for humans led to the study of jackfruit seed oil. This study includes the optimization of oil from feasible methods with respective solvents and the optimization is based on the amount of oil yield. The oil extraction process aided in this report namely, microwave oven, soxhlet extraction and mechanical shaker. The solvents used were petroleum ether, cyclohexane, methanol and ethyl acetate. The most efficient yield was obtained in microwave oven extraction process resulting in 27% of yield using methanol as solvent. The biodiesel yield obtained was about 92% by transesterification of Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit) seed oil at the following conditions: 65oC of reaction temperature, 1:9 molar ratio of oil : methanol and 400 rpm of stirring speed for 120 minutes with 1 wt% of sodium hydroxide as catalyst.

Automated inspection of weld quality is essential in any manufacturing industry. Application of digital image processing algorithms for weld quality inspection reduces production time, cost as well as inspection time. Computer aided inspection of weld quality is a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method which ensures safe and efficient operation of equipment thereby assuring compliance with industry standards and contributing for sustainability. In this paper, a survey on various image processing techniques applied for automated weld quality inspection is performed.

The concept of effluent treatment, by means, of a collective effort, has assumed reasonable gravity by being especially purposeful for cluster of small scale industrial unit. Common effluent treatment plant (CETP) not only helps the industries in easier control of pollution, but also act as a step towards cleaner environment and service to society at large. A number of technologies have been developed over the years to remove organic matter (expressed as chemical oxygen, COD) from industrial wastewater. The most important technologies include coagulation/ flocculation process (1), membrane filtration (2), oxidation process (3,4). These methods are generally expensive, complicated, time consuming and requires skilled personal. The high cost of coal- based activated carbons has stimulated the search for cheaper alternatives. Low cost and non-conventional adsorbent include agricultural sector. This study assesses pollutant removal efficiency from distillery- spent wash by three adsorbents (activated charcoal, fly ash and wood ash). Pots were kept in polyhouse at 30o C (humidity 75o C) with 35% reduction in natural sunlight. After 10 days of growth, adsorbent (15g each) were added separately to the pots soil and irrigated with two different concentrations (50% and 100%) of the effluent. One set of the pots was maintained as control. On each irrigation date, effluent was poured in a pot. Subsequent irrigation, with respective concentration of effluent was done at 12 days’ interval. After 6 hr. of irrigation, treatment – wise leachate was collected, brought to the laboratory and all the selected parameters pH, color, COD, Total solids (TS), Total dissolved solids (TDS), total soluble solids (TSS), Ca, Mg, Na, K and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Fe) were analyzed.

Combined discharge of domestic and tannery waste waters into streams or surface bodies has been witnessed in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu, India where the tannery processes are carried out at small-scale units. In the present study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the treatability of combined domestic and tannery waste waters using lab-scale activated sludge reactor under extended aeration. Studies on the efficiency of the activated sludge reactors were carried out by varying the solids retention time of 8, 12 and 16 days with a various hydraulic retention time of 15, 20, 25 and 30 h with an organic loading rate varying from 1.61 to 3.32 kg COD/ m3 / day . The results showed that at the end of 30 h HRT at 16 days SRT with a lower F/M ratio of 0.08 kg BOD/kg MLSS, the maximum reduction of COD was observed to be from 2020 to 175 mg/L. From the bio-kinetic parameters estimation studies, the values of kinetic coefficients are obtained such as the half velocity substrate concentration (Ks), maximum specific growth rate (?max), yield coefficient (Y) , maximum substrate utilization rate (k) and decay coefficient (Kd) as 122 mg/L, 0.224 day-1, 0.539 mg MLSS/mg COD, 0.416 day-1 and 0.088 day-1. The study reveals that the combined domestic and tannery waste water is amenable for treatment using ASP, with treatment efficiency as high as 91% and the bio-kinetics arrived at better stability of the system and enhanced microbial activities at longer HRT and SRT. Also the design values suggest that the extended aeration system is the appropriate activated sludge treatment process for combined domestic and tannery waste water treatment.