Faculty Publications

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    Biodegradability of PMMA blends with some cellulose derivatives
    (2006) Bhat, D.K.; Muthu, M.S.
    High polymer blends of Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with cellulose acetate (CA) and Cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) of varying blend compositions have been prepared to study their biodegradation behavior and blend miscibility. Films of PMMA-CA, and PMMA-CAP blends have been prepared by solution casting using Acetone and Dimethyl formamide(DMF) as solvents respectively. Biodegradability of these blends has been studied by four different methods namely, soil burial test, enzymatic degradation, and degradation in phosphate buffer and activated sludge degradation followed by water absorption tests to support the degradation studies. Degradation analysis was done by weight loss method. The results of all the tests showed sufficient biodegradability of these blends. Degradability increased with the increase in CA and CAP content in the blend compositions. The miscibility of PMMA-CA and PMMA-CAP blends have been studied by solution viscometric and ultrasonic methods. The results obtained reveal that PMMA forms miscible blends with either CA or CAP in the entire composition range. Miscibility of the blends may be due to the formation of hydrogen bond between the carbonyl group of PMMA and the free hydroxyl group of CA and CAP. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.
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    Performance of pulsed plate bioreactor for biodegradation of phenol
    (2007) Shetty K, K.V.; Kalifathulla, I.; Srinikethan, G.
    Biodegradation of phenol was carried out using Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans immobilised on glass beads, in a pulsed plate bioreactor. The effect of operating parameters like frequency of pulsation and amplitude of pulsation on the performance of pulsed plate bioreactor for biodegradation of phenol in a synthetic wastewater containing 500 ppm phenol was studied. Axial concentration profile measurements revealed that the pulsed plate bioreactor shows continuous stirred tank behaviour. As the amplitude was increased, percentage degradation increased, reaching 100% at amplitude of 4.7 cm and higher. Introduction of pulsation is found to increase the percentage degradation. Percentage degradation has increased with increase in frequency and 100% degradation was achieved at 0.5 s-1 and above. Biofilms developed in a non-pulsed bioreactor were thicker than those in the pulsed plate bioreactor. But biofilm thickness remained almost constant with increasing frequency. Biofilm density was found to be influenced by pulsation. The time required to reach steady state was more for pulsed reactor than the non-pulsed reactor and this start-up time had increased with increase in frequency of pulsation. The performance studies reveal that the pulsed plate bioreactor with immobilized cells has the potential to be an efficient bioreactor for wastewater treatment. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Biological phenol removal using immobilized cells in a pulsed plate bioreactor: Effect of dilution rate and influent phenol concentration
    (2007) Shetty K, K.V.; Ramanjaneyulu, R.; Srinikethan, G.
    The continuous aerobic biodegradation of phenol in synthetic wastewater was carried out using Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans immobilized over glass beads packed between the plates in a pulsed plate bioreactor at a frequency of pulsation of 0.5 s-1 and amplitude of 4.7 cm. The influence of dilution rate and influent phenol concentration on start up and steady state performance of the bioreactor was studied. The time taken to reach steady state has increased with increase in dilution rate and influent phenol concentration. It was found that, as the dilution rate is increased, the percentage degradation has decreased. Steady state percentage degradation was also reduced with increased influent phenol concentration. Almost 100% degradation of 300 and 500 ppm influent phenol could be achieved at a dilution rate of 0.4094 h-1 and more than 99% degradation could be achieved with higher dilution rates. At a higher dilution rate of 1.0235 h-1 and at concentrations of 800 and 900 ppm the percentage degradation has reduced to around 94% and 93%, respectively. The attached biomass dry weight, biofilm thickness and biofilm density at steady state were influenced by influent phenol concentration and dilution rate. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Artificial neural networks model for the prediction of steady state phenol biodegradation in a pulsed plate bioreactor
    (2008) Shetty K, K.V.; Nandennavar, S.; Srinikethan, G.
    Background: A recent innovation in fixed film bioreactors is the pulsed plate bioreactor (PPBR) with immobilized cells. The successful development of a theoretical model for this reactor relies on the knowledge of several parameters, which may vary with the process conditions. It may also be a time-consuming and costly task because of their nonlinear nature. Artificial neural networks (ANN) offer the potential of a generic approach to the modeling of nonlinear systems. Results: A feedforward ANN based model for the prediction of steady state percentage degradation of phenol in a PPBR by immobilized cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans (NCIM 2386) during continuous biodegradation has been developed to correlate the steady state percentage degradation with the flow rate, influent phenol concentration and vibrational velocity (amplitude x frequency). The model used two hidden layers and 53 parameters (weights and biases). The network model was then compared with a Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) model, derived from the same training data. Further these two models were used to predict the percentage degradation of phenol for blind test data. Conclusions: The performance of the ANN model was superior to that of the MRA model and was found to be an efficient data-driven tool to predict the performance of a PPBR for phenol biodegradation. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.
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    Combined effect of plate pulsation parameters and phenol concentrations on the phenol removal efficiency of a pulsed plate bioreactor with immobilized cells
    (2008) Shetty K, K.V.; Kedargol, M.R.; Srinikethan, G.
    Continuous aerobic biodegradation of phenol in synthetic wastewater with phenol at different concentrations (200, 300, 500, 800 and 900 ppm) was carried out in a pulsed plate column, which is used as a bioreactor with immobilised cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans (NCIM 2386) at a dilution rate of 0.4094 h-1 and amplitude of 4.7 cm at various frequencies of pulsation (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 s-1). The effect of frequency of pulsation on the steady state performance of the bioreactor for phenol biodegradation at different influent concentrations was studied. Percentage degradations were observed to be a combined effect of volumetric phenol loading, reactor residence time, mass transfer limitations and phenol inhibition effect. At 500 ppm influent phenol concentration the effect of frequencies of pulsation on the steady state percentage degradation at different amplitudes was studied. The percentage degradation increased with increase in frequency and almost 100% degradation was achieved at 0.75s-1, 0.5s-1 or 0.25s -1, with 3.3, 4.7 or 6.0 cm amplitudes respectively and hence the vibrational velocity (amplitude * frequency) was found to influence the steady state performance of the reactor. It was found that optimum vibrational velocities need to be fixed for maximum removal efficiency of the bioreactor depending on the influent phenol concentration. © IWA publishing 2008.
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    Continuous phenol removal using Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans in spouted bed contactor: Shock load study
    (2009) Dabhade, M.A.; Saidutta, M.B.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    Shock load studies are essential to investigate the suitability of biocontactors in degradation of pollutants. In the present work, the degradation of phenol by immobilized Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans in a spouted bed contactor was conducted. Granular activated carbon (GAC) and polymer beads were tested for the immobilization of cells of N. hydrocarbonoxydans-NCIM 2386. Initially, batch immobilization study was conducted to know the quantity of immobilized microorganisms per gram of solids and then the immobilized solids were used in the spouted bed contactor for phenol degradation. Also, the shock loading of phenol and hydraulic shock load test was performed to check the stability of operation. The immobilized Nocardia cells sustained the shock load and hydraulic load of phenol. Increase of influent phenol concentration and dilution rates increased the steady state effluent phenol concentration. Almost 95% degradation at maximum phenol loading of 0.73 gL-1h-1 was achieved. GAC has more attached biomass weight compared to polymer beads. © 2009 Academic Journals.
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    6BTA 5.9 G2-1 Cummins engine performance and emission tests using methyl ester mahua (Madhuca indica) oil/diesel blends
    (2009) Godiganur, S.; Suryanarayana Murthy, C.H.; Reddy, R.P.
    Neat mahua oil poses some problems when subjected to prolonged usage in CI engine. The transesterification of mahua oil can reduce these problems. The use of biodiesel fuel as substitute for conventional petroleum fuel in heavy-duty diesel engine is receiving an increasing amount of attention. This interest is based on the properties of bio-diesel including the fact that it is produced from a renewable resource, its biodegradability and potential to exhaust emissions. A Cummins 6BTA 5.9 G2- 1, 158 HP rated power, turbocharged, DI, water cooled diesel engine was run on diesel, methyl ester of mahua oil and its blends at constant speed of 1500 rpm under variable load conditions. The volumetric blending ratios of biodiesel with conventional diesel fuel were set at 0, 20, 40, 60, and 100. Engine performance (brake specific fuel consumption, brake specific energy consumption, thermal efficiency and exhaust gas temperature) and emissions (CO, HC and NOx) were measured to evaluate and compute the behavior of the diesel engine running on biodiesel. The results indicate that with the increase of biodiesel in the blends CO, HC reduces significantly, fuel consumption and NOx emission of biodiesel increases slightly compared with diesel. Brake specific energy consumption decreases and thermal efficiency of engine slightly increases when operating on 20% biodiesel than that operating on diesel. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Adsorption of phenol on granular activated carbon from nutrient medium: Equilibrium and kinetic Study
    (2009) Dabhade, M.A.; Saidutta, M.B.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    This paper presents the adsorption of phenol on granular activated carbon (GAC) from nutrient medium suitable for microorganisms' growth and also the subsequent biodegradation. Two parameter Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were studied using large range of phenol concentration (50-1000 mg/L). In low range of phenol concentration (50-300 mg/L), correlation coefficient, normalized deviation "g% and separation factor were 0.9989,2.18% and 0.38-0.78 respectively, while for higher concentration range (400-1000 mg/L), the corresponding values were 0.9719, 1.9% and 0.45- 0.67. Freundlich isotherm gave correlation coefficient of 0.9984, 1/n. value of 0.7269 and normalized deviation of 4.55%. Comparison based on R2, adjusted R2, normalized deviation and root mean square deviation (RMSD) showed that the Redke-Prausnitz isotherm model gives better prediction compared to other models. Adsorption of phenol follows pseudo second order kinetics with correlation coefficient closer to one. Biodegradation study using immobilized cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans on GAC showed that, biodegradation begins well before GAC reaches the saturation period.
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    Modelling and simulation of steady-state phenol degradation in a pulsed plate bioreactor with immobilised cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans
    (2011) Shetty K, V.S.; Verma, D.K.; Srinikethan, G.
    A novel bioreactor called pulsed plate bioreactor (PPBR) with cell immobilised glass particles in the interplate spaces was used for continuous aerobic biodegradation of phenol present in wastewater. A mathematical model consisting of mass balance equations and accounting for simultaneous external film mass transfer, internal diffusion and reaction is presented to describe the steady-state degradation of phenol by Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans (Nch.) in this bioreactor. The growth of Nch. on phenol was found to follow Haldane substrate inhibition model. The biokinetic parameters at a temperature of 30 ± 1 °C and pH at 7.0 ± 0.1 are ? m = 0.5397 h -1, K S = 6.445 mg/L and K I = 855.7 mg/L. The mathematical model was able to predict the reactor performance, with a maximum error of 2% between the predicted and experimental percentage degradations of phenol. The biofilm internal diffusion rate was found to be the slowest step in biodegradation of phenol in a PPBR. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.
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    Pathway identification, enzyme activity and kinetic study for the biodegradation of phenol by Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans NCIM 2386
    (Taylor and Francis Inc. 325 Chestnut St, Suite 800 Philadelphia PA 19106, 2016) Shetty, G.R.; Shetty K, K.V.
    Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans NCIM 2386 (Nhy) can grow using phenol as a sole carbon source and has a strong ability to degrade phenol. The paper presents the main metabolism pathways and mechanism of phenol degradation by Nhy. Phenol was found to be degraded via meta cleavage of catechol by the action of enzyme catechol 2,3-dioxygenase. The enzyme was found to be both extracellular and cell bound. The cell bound and extracellular enzymes actively degraded phenol even in the absence of the organism. The rate of phenol degradation by extracellular enzymes as sole enzymatic process (in the absence of cells) was found to be almost similar to that with the whole cells, indicating the prominence of extracellular enzymes. Michaelis–Menten model was found to fit the degradation rate kinetics of total phenol for total phenol concentrations of less than 100 mg L?1and also the degradation rate kinetics of catechol at catechol concentrations of less than 80 mg L?1during the exponential growth phase of the organism. Michaelis– Menten model was found to fit the kinetics of catechol formation rate which is also equal to the actual rate of phenol degradation to catechol. Both phenol and catechol were found to be substrate inhibitory. © 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.