India is a major producer and consumer of sugar in the world. Effluent originating from distilleries known as spentwash. The aqueous distillery effluent, spentwash is a dark brown highly organic effluent. It is one of the most complex, troublesome and strongest organic effluent. A huge amount of spent wash has been produced by the distilleries in India whose disposal into water bodies or land causes a number of environmental problems. Now-a-days emphasis is laid on waste minimization and revenue generation through byproduct recovery. The distillery spentwash can be utilized in agriculture for irrigation purposes, as fertilizer, a source of renewable energy and as manure. Hence a laboratory study was conducted at Department of Agronomy, Annamalai University to know the quality (pH and EC) of effluents for the purpose of proper treatment and dilution of effluent before discharge into water or field. The various dilutions of spentwash and water was taken in a ratio of 1:0, 1:10, 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, 1:50. The pH and EC were analyzed using pH meter and electrical conductivity meter. The dilution of spentwash and water at a ratio of 1:0 (untreated) showed a pH of 4.2 and EC of 38 dS m-1 which indicated as acidic in nature. A ratio of 1:50 showed pH of 7.57 and EC of 33.45 dS m-1 which is neutral and it is used in agriculture as fertigation and also served as fertilizers without any adverse effects.
Keywords: Distillery Spentwash, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Fertigation and Eco-Friendly, Water Dilution, pH
