Midland Probiotics

SCD Probiotics

White Paper:
Application of SCD Probiotics Technology
for Wastewater Treatment

Sustainable Community Development, LLC ("SCD"), based in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is a company specializing in natural microbial-based products and services for human health, agriculture industry, industrial waste management and environmental sustainability. Through 10 years of research and development, SCD has selected 16 different microbial strains for production of various probiotic products. These include lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus; yeast such as Saccharomyces; photosynthetic bacteria such as Rhodopseudomonas; and other beneficial bacteria such as Bacillus. This paper is written to explain the effects of SCD Probiotics Technology with wastewater issues. Specifically, this paper will explain SCD Odor Away™ and SCD Bio Klean™ as products used to treat wastewater.

In essence, SCD Probiotics InsideTM is a technology consortium of lactic acid bacteria, phototrophic bacteria, nutritional yeast and other beneficial microorganisms. SCD’s consortium culture synergistically works to inhibit the growth of pathogenic harmful bacteria through competitive exclusion. Competitive exclusion is when two species compete for a single source of food. The microbe with the more efficient absorption system will acquire most of the food, grow faster, reproduce faster and eventually displace the microbe that absorbs food slower and thus cannot grow as fast. With SCD Probiotics Technology, such as ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus), the microbes in are able to our compete the harmful microbes in wastewater, such as hydrogen sulfide. In addtion to competitive exclusion effects, SCD Probotics metabolites and its chemical characteristics contribute to its antimicrobial properties and health benefits. Average pH of probiotic product ranges from 3.2-3.5. Some products with SCD Probiotics InsideTM microorganisms consortium, can for instance, include Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. casie, L. fermentum, L. plantarum, Rhodoseudomonas palustris, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Steptococcus thermophilus, etc. The above-mentioned microorganisms have been known to be associated to human foods and are ubiqitously used in manufacturing of dietary supplement probiotic products for human, animal and aquaculture health.

While the traditional meaning of the word “probiotic” is applied to human and animal digestive microorganisms, SCD is on the cutting edge of developing technology to apply the concept of “probiotics” to many fields globaly including wastewater treatment, odor control, environmental bioremediation, agriculture, pest control, mold remediation, industrial and home agriculture, aquaculture, gardening, prevention of skin diseases, turf grass, composting and other fields.

Information about ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) can be found at www.SCDProbiotics.com. In general, this product is manufactured under high and strict quality control standard. In brief, ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) is an enhanced phototrophic bacteria and therefore is more suitable for agricultural and environment applications. All SCD products are manufactured under high and strict quality control standards. Products are manufactured in a food grade facility, utilizing food grade equipment, raw materials and utensils. SCD complies with the Food Grade current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) Guidelines enforced in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. GMP guidelines provide a system of processes, procedures and documentation to assure the product produced has the identity, strength, composition, quality and purity that it is represented to possess. Information about SCD Probiotics Technology can be found at www.SCDProbiotics.com

Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) provides certifiers, growers, manufacturers and suppliers an independent review of products intended for use in certified organic production, handling, and processing (Organic Materials Review Institute, 2006). OMRI’s services are directed to all aspects of the organic industry with a primary focus on the decision makers who deal with the compliance status of generic meterials and brand name products. With the OMRI Generic Materials List and OMRI Products List, OMRI provides guidance on the suitability of material inputs under the USDA National Organic Program standards (Organic Materials Review Institute, 2006). ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) is certified with OMRI as “safe for use in organic production.” Go to www.omri.org for more information and to verify SCD’s registered status. Most of raw materials used in manufacturing of SCD products are GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). Furthermore, most of SCD microbial species are ubiqitously used in the manufacturing of probiotic dietary supplement products for human, animal, aquaculture health. Some are known for usage in waste and bioremediation applications. In essence, they are known to be safe and are harmless to the enviroment.

SCD’s compliance with the above-mentioned regulatory agencies illustrates the safety and quality of the products manufactured as well as routine testing that has been conducted over the past two years. ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) has been routinely tested both in house and by third party independent laboratories for the incidence of pathogenic activity, heavy metals, and mycotoxins. Certificate of analysis of ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) is enclosed.

ProBio Balance™ Plus (formally SCD EM Plus) is recommended for use in agriculture and environment applications. It can be used to manufacture secondary products such as SCD Bio Klean™ and SCD Odor Away™ for specific wastewater applications. The secondary products are as below.

SCD Bio Klean™: This is an all-natural industrial cleaner containing exclusive microbes and their metabolites, which is recommended for treatment of industrial wastewater, grease, grime and dirt. SCD Bio Klean™ is an environmentally safe, and uniquely effective biological cleaner.

SCD Odor Away™: This is an all-natural biological odor reducer containing exclusive microbes and their metabolites. SCD Odor Away™ is environmentally safe and distinctly effective at decreasing odors in livestock lagoon, holding areas and pens, waste treatment facilities and composting operations.

Wastewater Basic Information
Wastewater treatment facilities constantly battle problems with the treatment of sewage. Putrefactive odors are an obvious problem due to the waste being treated. Some facilities use oxygen injections which aid in the reduction of hydrogen sulfide, however these injections do not work enough to completely eliminate the foul, putrefactive odors.

In wastewater facilities, solid organic, nitrogenous, waste material (a.k.a. sludge) is converted to ammonia through a process called mineralization, which leads to the putrefactive odors. The process of mineralization is simply where a substance is converted from an organic substance into an inorganic substance, therefore becoming “mineralized.” Sources of such waste material (sludge) are from fecal material, the decay of plant and animal tissues and from the decay of excess food, all of which are included when discussing wastewater facilities. When there is no organic nitrogen source in a system, heterotrophic bacteria utilize ammonia and break it down into less harmful compounds which are not putrefactive. Furthermore, high amounts of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and suspended solids (SS) result in water pollution which can further lead to plant and water life death if the water is pumped into a stream or river (Wididana, 2006).

Biological oxygen demand (BOD) is the procedure for determining how fast biological organisms use up oxygen in a body of water. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of organic compounds in the water. Both are measures of water quality and frequently measured in wastewater treatment. The primary purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove the suspended and soluble organic constituents measured as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) as well as to reduce fecal coliform.

Coliforms are a broad class of bacteria which live in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. When there is a presence of coliform bacteria in tap water, this suggests that something with the treatment system is not working or there is a problem in the pipes. Health problems that can result form this contamination include diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting (Environmental Protection Agency, 2001). In the Total Coliform Rule, the EPA set the health goal for total coliforms at zero. The legal limit states that water treatment facilities must not find coliforms in more than 5% of the samples they take each month to meet the EPA’s standards (Environmental Protection Agency, 2001).

In summary, sewage treatment, or domestic waste treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, both runoff (effluents) and domestic. It includes physical, chemical and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce a waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste or sludge suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. This material is often inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds. Wastewater typically has a high level of pathogens, suspended solids (SS), protein, mineral salt and chemical compounds. This makes the treatment of wastewater extremely difficult without the use of chemicals. High contents of organic matter can lead to the formation of malodors as well as the degradation of sulphur, phosphate, and nitrogen. Malodors can lead to putrefactive odors as well as pollutants that can lead to diseases making the environment unsafe. Obviously, wastewater treatment is an issue. This application guideline explains how SCD Probiotics Technology can be used to treat wastewater systems to decrease harmful organic matters and pathogens thus reducing odors.

The classical definition of the word “probiotic” is live microorganisms, which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host. The concept of probiotics is being further expanded to imply the use of beneficial live microbial cultures applied to a system to increase health and performance. Many probiotic strains have a long history of safe use. Probiotics have been introduced into the wastewater industry for many years. When probiotics are added to wastewater, odor is not noticed, sludge is reduced over time and levels of harmful organic compounds decrease. Many wastewater treatment facilities are currently using various types of probiotics, but typically they only have a few strains.

Probiotics have been introduced into the wastewater industry for many years. The classical definition of the word “probiotic” is live microorganisms, which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host. Examples of probiotics used in wastewater treatment are groups of the followings microorganisms; Bacillus, Phototrophic bacteria, Lactic acid bacteria, and Yeast.

The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce lactic acid as the major metabolic end product of carbohydrate fermentation. LAB are also characterized by an increased tolerance to a lower pH range. This enables LAB to outcompete other bacteria in a natural fermentation, as they can withstand the increased acidity from organic acid production. Through the metabolism of LAB, CO2 (carbon dioxide) is formed. This is used by other species in the consortia as a source of energy to their own metabolic systems, e.g. phototrophic bacteria. The yeast and phototrophic bacteria are known as heterotrophic bacteria, meaning they use organic substrates to get carbon for their growth and development. Heterotrophic bacteria can reproduce in as little as 15 minutes to 1 hour (Biocon Labs, 2008). Heterotrophes, such as Bacillus are also very resilient in the environment due to their heat-resistance characteristics and spore-forming abilities, which help to increase shelf-life. Phototrophic bacteria (or PNSB) are capable of using both organic and inorganic materials as hydrogen donors throughout their growth cycle. The ability of PNSB species to use hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic, and convert it into nonpoisonous compounds is also very beneficial in the wastewater industry (Kobayashi and Kobayashi, 2002).

SCD consortium probiotics coexist based on their metabolic properties. The yeast have the ability to assimilate glucose as a substrate and produce pyruvic acid through metabolism of the saccharide decomposed system. Pyruvic acid can be used as a substrate of microaerobic lactic acid bacteria. In this way, if the lactic acid bacteria using the metabolite of yeast multiply, the formed lactic acid becomes the substrate of photosynthetic bacteria and they can be multiplied. Then yeast uses the saccharides formed by this photosynthetic bacteria as a substrate and can multiply repeatedly. This implicates that the microbes in SCD Probiotic Technology continue to aid each other to keep alive and stay strong in the environment. Each group of microbes has other properties, which make them effective and helps to explain why SCD Probiotics Technology is in turn so effective.

Quang (2006) reported that the species in SCD Probiotics Technology, including Lactobacillus, Yeast (such as Bacillus), Rhodopseudomonas and other beneficial species, have shown to reduce total coliform counts in wastewater facilities by 80% after 4 months of treatment. This is a dramatic reduction in total coliforms. The metabolites from LAB have shown anti-microbial ability in some studies. Depending on the environment, nutrition and type of species, they can produce lactic acid, acetic acid, ethanol, diacetyl, CO2 (as carbonic acid), H2O2, reuterine, derivatives of lactic acid (hydroxyl lactic acid), and small peptides (such as bacteriocins) (Ray, 2000; Nes and Holo, 2002). These antimicrobial agents can either inhibit or kill target microorganisms such as molds, yeasts, coliforms, vegetative bacteria, bacterial spores, and even viruses.

In one case, after replacing oxygen injections with SCD Probiotics Technology, the hydrogen sulfide levels decreased significantly and oxygen injections were discontinued (Boyd, 1999). The results seen included the immediate reduction of odors within 24 hours. This is due to the microbes ability to degrade various organic compounds. Consortium microbes are able to digest organic compounds and release beneficial by-products.

By using SCD Probiotics Technology, Indonesia showed reductions of COD, BOD and SS of 40%-50%, 42%-55% and 44%-71% respectively (Wididana, 2006). SCD Probiotics Technology was applied periodically every 10 days. The microbes were able to ferment the organic matter resulting in the formation of simpler organic compounds, such as amino acids, alcohols, sugars and organic acids that are more beneficial and not harmful to the surrounding environment. This results in a reduction of COD, BOD and SS that typically would result in putrefactive odors.

The phototrophic bacteria in SCD Probiotics Technology also has an extremely important role for wastewater management due to their ability to degrade organic compounds. They can oxidize NH3 and use the natural sunlight as a source of energy and CO2 as a source of carbon (Wididana, 2006). As mentioned earlier, by having multiple types of bacteria in one culture, SCD Probiotics Technology products are able to degrade various organic compounds, rather than one single strain of microorganism. When levels of BOD, COD, and SS increase, this increase indicates a decrease in oxygen which releases foul odor. When these levels are extremely high, the organic compounds cannot be degraded biologically alone (Wididana, 2006). SCD Probiotics Technology can aid in this problem by digesting the organic compounds and releasing beneficial by-products, such as amino acids as mentioned previously. Furthermore, SCD Probiotics Technology has been known to be higher in efficacy than typical competitive products. Most probiotics are single strains in a dehydrated powder form and are highly expensive. As explained, SCD’s products are liquid and have a consortium of 15 species or more depending on the product. SCD Odor Away™ and SCD Bio Klean™ both have 17 species and therefore are higher in efficacy due to their ability to conform to many different environments as explained throughout this paper. Also, the liquid product is highly concentrated and is diluted in water prior to use. This further makes the product more efficient as it is very inexpensive. There is an initial cost to get started, but in the end the product is very inexpensive. For example, if the price of a 275 gallon tote is $5,000, that is $4.69 per liter. Once diluted in water, the cost is anywhere between $0.23 to even less than $0.01 per liter before the cost of water. SCD Probiotics Technology is both highly efficient and affordable making it very consumer friendly.

The successful application of SCD Probiotics Technology is expected to have the following impact on production costs at the farm:

• Decrease the pumping cost in the intensive ponds by improving water quality and decreasing the frequency and quantum of water exchange as well as black sludge after harvest.
• Decrease the aeration cost in the intensive and hyper-intensive ponds through microbial action and more efficient degradation of organic material, thereby reducing bottom sedimentation.
• Improve feed conversion. A 2.4% improvement has been seen in trials
• Improve survival rate. An 8.1% increase has been achieved in trials.
• Direct 1% reduction in feed cost, not including improved feed conversion.
• Reduce the duration of the cycle to achieve target weight.
• Increased average weight and corresponding market value.
• Increased shrimp quality and corresponding market value.
• Increased growth rate. As much as a 37.3% increase as compared to control has been achieved in trials.
• Increase in average weight. As much as a 27.5% increase as compared to control has been achieved in trials.

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