Author : Hukkeri P.A, Munnoli P. M and Gadag R. B

Distillery industries are one of the important agro-based industries producing ethyl alcohol for industrial and potable purposes. They also assume importance due to growing requirement of alcohol in energy sector. However their environmental significance is assessed as pollution causing, as they generate large quantity of foul smelling coloured wastewater known as spent wash. The experiment involves vermicomposting on application of primary treated spent wash to press mud and soya bean waste in different dilutions using earthworms Eudrilus eugeniae. Initial characterization was done for primary treated spent wash, press mud & soya bean waste. The vermicompost samples made were collected and analyzed for their macro nutrients N, P, K .The bioconversion period of spent wash with soya bean waste was found to be 53 days; whereas for spent wash with press mud was 45 days. The N,P,K values increased from 1.26 to 1.96% , 0.45 to 0.97% & 0.6 to 0.99% for VC of SW+PM, similarly N,P,K values increased from 1.48 to 1.86% , 0.35 to 0.68% & 0.46 to 0.61% for VC of SW+SBW respectively.

Keywords: Spent wash, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Press mud, Organic waste, Organic carbon, C/N ratio.

Article published in the Proceedings of National Conference on ‘Women in Science & Engineering’ (NCWSE 2013), SDMCET Dharwad