Impact of garbage enzyme in treating waste water in Kampala City

Abstract

Garbage enzyme also Known as “Eco enzyme or fruit enzyme” is the fermented product of fresh Kitchen waste of agricultural origin, Jaggery, and water, which is proved as a multipurpose solution for various uses. Garbage enzyme is a dark brown, strong sweet sour fermented smell, complex solution, obtained by the fermentation of fruit/vegetable peels, molasses and water, which has got many functions to degrade, modify and speeding up the reactions. The study aimed to develop garbage enzyme solution, a value-added product from the organic kitchen wastes generated. The characteristics of the garbage enzymes were investigated, and its potential efficiency of parameters removal were studied. It was produced by three months fermentation of jaggery, fruit wastes and water mixture in the ratio of 1:3:10. Wastewater samples collected and treated with 10% concentrations of garbage enzyme were analyzed for its effect on various water quality parameters. Bio-catalytic enzyme activity of the solution was also evaluated. The optimum concentration of garbage enzyme for the efficient waste water treatment was found to be 10%. At this optimum concentration, the garbage enzyme solution showed a higher percentage of removal of certain parameters like Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Oil and Grease, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Electrical conductance(EC), and Chloride by 93.571%, 90.804%, 94.35%, 75%, 97.4% and 99.30%, respectively. It was found that the enzyme contained protease, amylase and lipase through bio-catalytic characterization techniques. The optimum pH at which these enzymes showed the maximum activity was also found to be in the range of 6.5 to 7.0. This product is a potential low-cost alternative for domestic wastewater treatment and solubilization of organic matter. This garbage enzyme production process also seems cheap and protective to the environment since it contains liberates nitrates, carbonates and ozone that absorb some of the greenhouse gases.