Utilising hen feather as an adsorbent on comparison with bentonite in distillery effluent using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyser.

Distillery effluent is a dark-coloured recalcitrant organic formed as a result of mailard's reaction during fermentation of molasses. The high strength effluent is highly complicated to dispose due to its properties, such as acidic nature, low pH, high total solids concentration, high concentration of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). The disposal of effluent from the distilleries is attempted using hen feather as an organic adsorbent which is a biodegradable waste, and is compared with the bentonite as an inorganic adsorbent. The adsorption experiments were conducted in the real-time distillery effluent using hen feather and bentonite for a concentration range of 1000 to 3000 ppm. The effect of different adsorbents was studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and Thermogravimetric analyser. The gravimetric analysis of the hen feather and bentonite after adsorption indicates the 72% and 49.96% of total dissolved solids could be removed, respectively. The TGA results showed that the residue obtained by distillery effluent solids in oxygen mode was 30% which is reduced to 9% for hen feather adsorbed distillery solid samples. From the experiments, the results show that the residue from the distillery effluent solids was reduced to 9% on comparing with the bentonite 40%. The amide group in the hen feather adsorbs higher as the distillery effluent is the product of sugar and amine fermentation. Hence, the hen feather is the better option to use for the adsorption and to reduce the solid waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]