Identification and optimization of parameters for the semi-continuous production of garbage enzyme from pre-consumer organic waste by green RP-HPLC method

• Garbage enzyme solution is produced from vegetable and fruit waste by fermentation process.
• Treatment of waste water and sludge can be done in eco-friendly way using garbage enzyme.
• Scaling up of garbage enzyme production need a parameter for monitoring.
• Organic acids are used as a monitoring parameter.
• A concentration of organic acids in garbage enzyme was determined using RP-HPLC method.

Reuse and management of organic solid waste, reduce the environmental impact on human health and increase the economic status by generating valuable products for current and novel applications. Garbage enzyme is one such product produced from fermentation of organic solid waste and it can be used as liquid fertilizer, antimicrobial agents, treatment of domestic wastewater, municipal and industrial sludge treatment, etc. The semi-continuous production of garbage enzyme in large quantity at minimal time period and at lesser cost is needed to cater for treatment of increasing quantities of industrial waste activated sludge. This necessitates a parameter for monitoring and control for the scaling up of current process on semi-continuous basis. In the present study a RP-HPLC (Reversed Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatography) method is used for quantification of standard organic acid at optimized condition 30 °C column oven temperature, pH 2.7, and 0.7 ml/min flow rate of the mobile phase (potassium dihydrogen phosphate in water) at 50 mM concentration. The garbage enzyme solution collected in 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 days were used as sample to determine the concentration of organic acid. Among these, 90th day sample showed the maximum concentration of 78.14 g/l of acetic acid in garbage enzyme, whereas other organic acids concentration got decreased when compare to the 15th day sample. This result confirms that the matured garbage enzyme contains a higher concentration of acetic acid and thus it can be used as a monitoring parameter for semi-continuous production of garbage enzyme in large scale.

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