Microbiology to the rescue
Products developed by Microbiology students of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa College, Madikeri.
EVER IMAGINED making wine out of coffee pulp and generating bio-gas and bio-fertilizer from coffee husk, both condemned as wastes and deleterious to the environment in Kodagu?
If what has been invented and improved upon in the Department of Microbiology at the Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa College in Madikeri, a constituent of the Mangalore University, is to be believed, there is good news for the plantation owners. They need not despair over the coffee pulp and husk which have come under the scanner of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board for causing environmental degradation.
The coffee pulp waste is being converted into tasty wine while the husk is being transmuted into high utility bio-fertilizer and bio-gas at the Department's laboratories.
"We hope to take the bio-gas to the field this year,'' said Anu Appaiah, who is in-charge of the affairs at the Department.
Coffee pulp has lot of yeast. A high inoculum of yeast (wine yeast) is added during the wine-making process. The pulp is diluted by adding one fourth of boiled and cooled water and fermented for 21 days at a cool temperature. Kodagu's climate is ideal, says Dr. Appaiah.
Afterwards, the mix is filtered and pasteurised to destroy yeast cells and kept for maturation for at least four months. To derive a clear solution by way of "clarification" method, enzymes are added. This process was formulated by the Department last year.
The taste of wine made out of Robusta coffee variety differs from that of Arabica. Robusta tasted better, said Dr. Appaiah.
Bio-gas
The bio-gas plants can be used in institutions such as anganwadi centres where mid-day meals are served. Using polypropylene drums for storing the husks and generating gas could cost around Rs. 20,000 per plant, whereas ordinary plastic drums could cost about Rs. 10,000.
The bio-gas method, using coffee husk, could take a little longer time to generate gas compared to the cow-dung method.
Bio-fertilizer has proved to be very useful in promoting growth of plants, Dr. Appaiah said, producing comparative pictures of the plants taken before and after manuring. Coffee husk is degraded in 20 days after husk is isolated and inoculated with "culture'' materials in the laboratory. It is later made into heaps and covered with polythene material and kept for 20 days to allow for husk degradation.
After the scheduled period, the product is exposed to sunlight and dried. One kg. of inoculum, priced at Rs. 187, could be used to convert nearly 100 kg. of husk as bio-fertilizer.
"We have the capability to produce any amount of inoculum.'' Those interested could contact the Department of Microbiology, said Dr. Appaiah. The bio-fertilizer quality was compatible with vermi-compost manures.
Research
The Department recently completed a CSIR-sponsored project (2001-04) on a study between fermented Indian dairy products and indigenously lesser known polysaccarides with a view to study its potential commercial use. It involved a sum of Rs. 4.74 lakh.
The other project (2004-07) currently underway relates to bioprospecting for lesser known polysaccarides of Western Ghats, sponsored by the Union Department of Science and Technology.
The project, being handled by Sushma Appaiah, involves a sum of Rs. 16.4 lakh.
Currently, there are four students doing their doctorates in the Department.
Venugopal is working on coffee husk degradation, Soumya on bio-diversity of yeasts of Coorg, Somashekar on newer and alternative raw materials for alcohol production and Usha Kiran on "Lytic Cultures."
JEEVAN CHINNAPPA
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