ASHISH K. ASTHANAlAND RAJEEVA GAUR
Abstract
Molasses a by product of sugar industry is commonly used as raw material in fermentation industries especially for ethanol production. Molasses contains melanoidin, a biopolymer, synthesized from sugar and amino compounds, hard to decompose by microorganisms. A strain of Pseudomonas sp. isolated from the effluent of biogas reactor showed ability to remove melanoidin by 40 â 42% at pH 5.5 and temperature 40°C, while in addition of raw yeast sludge (5 g/1) and maltose (0.5 g/1), further increased the colour removal by 10% . Thus, it can be concluded that the isolated bacterial strain will be helpful in successfully removing melanoidin from distillery effluent.