1Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), Guwahati – 781039, India
2Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong-793003, India
*Email: kalamdhad@gmail.com
Online published on 24 April, 2015.
Bioconversion of industrial sludges into vermicompost is of great profit as; the waste is converted into value added product, as well as it controls a pollutant that is a consequence of increasing industrialization. This paper reports the feasibility of utilization of vermicomposting technology for nutrient recovery from industrial sludge in laboratory scale experiment employing Eudrilus eugeniae earthworm. The earthworms survived very meagerly in 100% solid pulp and paper mill sludge (SPPMS). There was decrease in total organic carbon (TOC), oxygen uptake rate (OUR), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). High total nitrogen (TN), ash content, electrical conductivity (EC) was also observed at the end of the vermicomposting process. Total phosphorous (TP) increased by 2–11 folds in R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5. Maximum earthworm biomass was observed in R5 and minimum in R1. The results indicated that (SPPMS) could be converted into good quality manure by vermicomposting if mixed with cow dung.
Cow dung, Eudrilus eugeniae, Food processing waste, Vermicomposting
