Microbes in Human Welfare
Microbes in Industrial Products
Even in industry, microbes are used to synthesise a number of products valuable to human beings
Beverages and antibiotics are some examples
Production on an industrial scale, requires growing microbes in very large vessels called fermentors (Figure 8.4)
Fermented Beverages
For this purpose the same yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae used for bread-making and commonly called brewer’s yeast, is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices, to produce ethanol
Do you recollect the metabolic reactions, which result in the production of ethanol by yeast? Depending on the type of the raw material used for fermentation and the type of processing (with or without distillation) different types of alcoholic drinks are obtained
Wine and beer are produced without distillation whereas whisky, brandy and rum are produced by distillation of the fermented broth
The photograph of a fermentation plant is shown in Figure 8.5
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are chemical substances, which are produced by some microbes and can kill or retard the growth of other (disease-causing) microbes
You are familiar with the commonly used antibiotic Penicillin
He found out that it was due to a chemical produced by the mould and he named it Penicillin after the mould Penicillium notatum
However, its full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey
This antibiotic was extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in World War II
Fleming, Chain and Florey were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945, for this discovery
After Penicillin, other antibiotics were also purified from other microbes
Can you name some other antibiotics and find out their sources? Antibiotics have greatly improved our capacity to treat deadly diseases such as plague, whooping cough (kali khansi ), diphtheria (gal ghotu) and leprosy (kusht rog), which used to kill millions all over the globe
Chemicals, Enzymes and other Bioactive Molecules
Examples of acid producers are Aspergillus niger (a fungus) of citric acid, Acetobacter aceti (a bacterium) of acetic acid; Clostridium butylicum (a bacterium) of butyric acid and Lactobacillus (a bacterium) of lactic acid
Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is used for commercial production of ethanol
Microbes are also used for production of enzymes
Lipases are used in detergent formulations and are helpful in removing oily stains from the laundry
You must have noticed that bottled fruit juices bought from the market are clearer as compared to those made at home
This is because the bottled juices are clarified by the use of pectinases and proteases
Streptokinase produced by the bacterium Streptococcus and modified by genetic engineering is used as a ‘clot buster’ for removing clots from the blood vessels of patients who have undergone myocardial infarction leading to heart attack
Another bioactive molecule, cyclosporin A, that is used as an immunosuppressive agent in organ-transplant patients, is produced by the fungus Trichoderma polysporum
Statins produced by the yeast Monascus purpureus have been commercialised as blood-cholesterol lowering agents
Microbes in Sewage Treatment
We know that large quantities of waste water are generated everyday in cities and towns
A major component of this waste water is human excreta
This municipal waste-water is also called sewage
It contains large amounts of organic matter and microbes
Many of which are pathogenic
Have you ever wondered where this huge quantity of sewage or urban waste water is disposed off daily? This cannot be discharged into natural water bodies like rivers and streams directly - you can understand why
Before disposal, hence, sewage is treated in sewage treatment plants (STPs) to make it less polluting
Treatment of waste water is done by the heterotrophic microbes naturally present in the sewage
This treatment is carried out in two stages: image Primary treatment : These treatment steps basically involve physical removal of particles - large and small - from the sewage through filtration and sedimentation
These are removed in stages; initially, floating debris is removed by sequential filtration
Then the grit (soil and small pebbles) are removed by sedimentation
All solids that settle form the primary sludge, and the supernatant forms the effluent
The effluent from the primary settling tank is taken for secondary treatment
Secondary treatment or Biological treatment : The primary effluent is passed into large aeration tanks (Figure 8.6) where it is constantly agitated mechanically and air is pumped into it
This allows vigorous growth of useful aerobic microbes into flocs (masses of bacteria associated with fungal filaments to form mesh like structures)
While growing, these microbes consume the major part of the organic matter in the effluent
This significantly reduces the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) of the effluent
BOD refers to the amount of the oxygen that would be consumed if all the organic matter in one liter of water were oxidised by bacteria
The sewage water is treated till the BOD is reduced
The BOD test measures the rate of uptake of oxygen by micro-organisms in a sample of water and thus, indirectly, BOD is a measure of the organic matter present in the water
The greater the BOD of waste water, more is its polluting potential
Once the BOD of sewage or waste water is reduced significantly, the effluent is then passed into a settling tank where the bacterial ‘flocs’ are allowed to sediment
This sediment is called activated sludge
A small part of the activated sludge is pumped back into the aeration tank to serve as the inoculum
The remaining major part of the sludge is pumped into large tanks called anaerobic sludge digesters
Here, other kinds of bacteria, which grow anaerobically, digest the bacteria and the fungi in the sludge
During this digestion, bacteria produce a mixture of gases such as methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide
These gases form biogas and can be used as source of energy as it is inflammable
The effluent from the secondary treatment plant is generally released into natural water bodies like rivers and streams
An aerial view of such a plant is shown in Figure 8.7
You can appreciate how microbes play a major role in treating millions of gallons of waste water everyday across the globe
This methodology has been practiced for more than a century now, in almost all parts of the world
Till date, no manmade technology has been able to rival the microbial treatment of sewage
image You are aware that due to increasing urbanisation, sewage is being produced in much larger quantities than ever before
However the number of sewage treatment plants has not increased enough to treat such large quantities
So the untreated sewage is often discharged directly into rivers leading to their pollution and increase in water-borne diseases
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has initiated Ganga Action Plan and Yamuna Action Plan to save these major rivers of our country from pollution
Under these plans, it is proposed to build a large number of sewage treatment plants so that only treated sewage may be discharged in the rivers