ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION THROUGH ALLIUM CEPA OF FOOD INDUSTRY EFFLUENT TREATED BY PROCESS USING MEMBRANES

Abstract

Due to population growth, there is an increase in the tendency of water resource degradation. One of the biggest polluters is the practice of dumping industrial and domestic effluents without any treatment on the watercourse. The utilization of effluents is an alternative to minimize the inadequate waste dump, thus avoiding the overload on the treatment system as well as cutting down costs and expenses. This work’s objective is to evaluate the application of reverse osmosis in a food industrial effluent, in physicochemical and toxicological terms. A reverse osmosis technical application was conducted and then the effluent was examined, before and afterward, in terms of pH, Turbidity, Colouring, Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Organic Carbon, and Total Nitrogen as well as a toxicological evaluation (Allium cepa). According to the obtained result, it can be identified that the technique of reverse osmosis showed treatment efficiency when applied to the effluent containing coloring and soy isoflavones, with regards to the physicals and chemical evaluation. In terms of toxicological evaluation, with respect to the radicular development, the treated effluent (permeate) showed a radicular growth, once the raw effluent did not develop any root.