Assessment of fish scale biosorbent in the treatment of seafood processing plant wastewater

Abstract

BACKGROUND Wastewater generated from seafood processing plants poses a serious threat to the draining environments. In addition, huge amount of fish scales are discarded as solid waste from seafood processing plants and fish markets. These biowastes can be used as biosorbent in the treatment of wastewaters. In the present work, waste fish scales were employed as biosorbent in order to explore the adsorption capacity of several pollutant parameters such as nutrients, ammonia, biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the treatment of seafood processing plant wastewater. The experiment was carried out as batch work under varying biosorbent dosage levels and contact times. RESULTS The biosorbent treatment showed >70% removal of nitrite, phosphate and BOD. The ammonia and COD were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced with >95% removal at the end of treatment process. Based on the results, the treatment showed best adsorption at 90 min contact time with a biosorbent dosage of 1 g/100 mL in the removal of BOD, COD and ammonia. Other parameters showed maximum reduction at 180 min contact time. Experimental data fitted well with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models (R2 values ranging between 0.84 and 0.99). All of the data were statistically tested using SPSS v25 software. CONCLUSION The results of the present study showed that waste fish scales can be effectively reused as biosorbent in the treatment of organic pollutants from seafood processing plant wastewater. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI)

Studies on the efficiency of fish scale adsorbents for treatment of fish processing effluent

“…This high reduction percentage observed in the present study might be due to the high surface area of biochar (347 m 2 /g) compared with the previous report (1.83 m 2 /g). Another report registered >90% removal of BOD and COD using chemically modified (acid treated) fish scale biosorbent in the treatment of 100 mL wastewater 13 . Thus, it is very clear that, the present work is the first study to involve the generation of novel fish scale biochar with high surface area when compared with other fish scale adsorbents employed in previous works.…”

“…Another report registered >90% removal of BOD and COD using chemically modified (acid treated) fish scale biosorbent in the treatment of 100 mL wastewater. 13 Thus, it is very clear that, the present work is the first study to involve the generation of novel fish scale biochar with high surface area when compared with other fish scale adsorbents employed in previous works. Moreover, the results of this study showed that fish scale biochar can also be effectively utilized as an alternative for commercially available AC since both adsorbents displayed almost similar %R and adsorption potential in the removal of pollutant parameters such as BOD and COD during the effluent treatment process.…”

“…More research reports about the metal and dye sorption potential of chemically pre‐treated fish scales are available, but studies about the preparation and assessment of the adsorption potential of carbonized fish scales are scarce. In one study, chemically pre‐treated fish scale biosorbent was employed to assess the COD removal efficiency in the treatment of wastewater 13 . Apart from these studies, only one study has been registered about the COD removal potential of activated fish scales in wastewater 14 .…”

“…In one study, chemically pre-treated fish scale biosorbent was employed to assess the COD removal efficiency in the treatment of wastewater. 13 Apart from these studies, only one study has been registered about the COD removal potential of activated fish scales in wastewater. 14 In considering all these aspects, the present study aims to utilize waste fish scales for the preparation of dried fish scale adsorbent and fish scale biochar in the treatment of BOD and COD in fish processing plant effluent.…”

Exploring fish in a new way: A review on non-food industrial applications of fish

“…Dried fish scales can be used in wastewater treatment systems as a flocculating agent to precipitate the solid material, particularly protein materials [ 64 ]. Dried fish scales are cheaper than chitosan and safer than traditional flocculating agents [ 52 ].…”