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Assessment of in situ stabilization and heavy metal toxicity reduction of sugar mill pressmud through pilot scale composting

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Abstract

Owing to a huge amount of industrial organic waste generation in the recent past, concerned industries are facing immense challenges for in situ treatment and disposal of such wastes. Therefore, in this study, the efficacy assessment of in situ windrow composting of pressmud (PM) produced by sugar industry has been investigated. Samples were grabbed and mixed from windrows having composting days of 15 (PM15), 30 (PM30), and 45 (PM45) and were collected along with a compost sample from the 60th day (PMC) windrow. An investigation of physico-chemical parameters including pH, electrical conductivity, moisture content, volatile solids (VS), ash content, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and C/N ratio was performed for raw PM and other aforementioned samples. Moreover, speciation of heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Zn), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analyses were performed for PM and PMC to evaluate the heavy metal toxicity and mineralogical and chemical changes. The analysis showed 20.33% reduction in VS content and 53.65% increase in TN content after 60 days of in situ windrow composting. The pH and EC values of PMC were found to be lesser than that of upper values recommended for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, the speciation analysis showed significant reduction in bioavailability of heavy metals. The XRD and FTIR results were confirmatory for transformation of heavy metals into relatively stable forms. The study recommends the windrow composting practice as effective bioconversion technique that stabilizes organic content, enhances humification, and diminishes heavy metal bioavailability for PM and similar other sludges.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly acknowledge the support provided by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) - Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. The authors are also thankful to the Dhampur Sugar Mills administration for plant access and sample collection.

Funding

The SERB-DST, Government of India funded the research under sanction order number EEQ/2017/000701.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Resources Engineering Section, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Block V 312, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Abhishek N Srivastava & Sumedha Chakma

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  1. Abhishek N Srivastava
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Abhishek N Srivastava: Writing — original draft, review and editing, conceptualization, experimentation and methodology, and validation of results. Sumedha Chakma: supervision, review and editing, project administration, funding, and resource acquisition.

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Correspondence to Abhishek N Srivastava.

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Srivastava, A.N., Chakma, S. Assessment of in situ stabilization and heavy metal toxicity reduction of sugar mill pressmud through pilot scale composting. Environ Monit Assess 195, 951 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11564-4

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