“We focus our efforts ahead on designing innovative and economical wastewater treatment solutions for a sustainable future,” says Priyanka Khaire Sr. Executive, Wastewater and, Bioremediation, Organica Biotech Pvt. Ltd.

How did you successfully manage your business in Covid times? 

With more than half of our work centred on onsite visits to provide customisable solutions, the pandemic caused initial difficulties due to a lack of plant visits and client interaction. Through the trust built with our clients over the past 21 years, we were able to overcome these challenges and return to business as usual. 

By staying true to our brand, constant communication, and with high morals, we proceeded to arrange virtual visits on Zoom when site visits were not possible. With the constant support of the R&D team, we were able to proactively provide technical support during our periods of commissioning and dosing. With all the challenges of working remotely that Covid brought, each individual at Organica Biotech was able to adapt and change in the same way we do with our products and technology.

What are the key challenges in the market apart from the pandemic impact? 

In developing countries like India, the lack of awareness about the importance of wastewater treatment and the value of freshwater resources is a major hurdle for treatment providers in the market. There are a number of factors governing the treatment of wastewater; two key components focus on the types of material manufactured vs the varying concentrations of effluent contaminants. Hence, it has varying and dynamic effluents that need very careful, customised treatments. Along with dynamic effluents come notions of microbiology being associated with increased pathogenicity of not only effluent but also human health. As per conventional methods, most people tend to resort to the use of cow dung as a source of microbes, but fail to properly understand the microbiome of cow-dung and how it is not always ideal for every treatment system. 

With the advancement of technology and increasing stringency of environmental norms, most industries are making the switch to more viable biological alternatives or wastewater treatment with the changing notions and acceptance of the use of microbes. 

The unavailability of land also acts as a common hindrance in the building of wastewater plants in India, especially in urban areas. Land is a highly expensive commodity in India, especially in urban India. Setting up treatment plants in India requires acquiring land, which is difficult and is accompanied by the requirement for a continuous power supply, skilled labor, and adhering to governmental norms.

Do you feel the pandemic will catalyse the R&D for the development of newer products for the water and wastewater segment? What properties do you feel will be desired in the newer products? 

The pandemic has definitely ushered in an era of environmental consciousness as mankind has seen the repercussions of being callous towards nature and our natural resources in general. We envision that governments and regulatory bodies around the world will hasten the movement towards environmental conservation on a national scale. This new demand will catalyse the R&D sector to create sustainable and effective products to cater to every industry need. The key attributes that will be required are: tailor made solutions to suit different wastewater types instead of a ‘one size fits all’ solution, better efficiency and shelf life and cost effectiveness in order to deal with the rising cost of wastewater management. 

What are your strategies for business revival? 

We are targeting various industrial segments with customised solutions for specific problems in order to find sustainable solutions for their effluent treatment systems. With the changes in regulatory compliance norms, Organica Biotech is geared up to adopt new systems and technologies and processes in order to help each industry meet government discharge norms. With our expertise in the field of biotechnology, we continuously develop industry specific solutions without altering their existing hardware systems. For tough to degrade pollutants, we develop problem specific proprietary microbial consortia-based formulations with robust and adaptive microbial populations. With the constantly changing market as our daily “normal”, we focus our efforts ahead on designing innovative and economical wastewater treatment solutions with the aim of driving a sustainable future. 

Elucidate on the various capabilities of your state-of-the-art DSIR-certified R & D laboratory. 

Our R&D laboratory is equipped with highly sophisticated instruments and modern systems used to develop solutions and products for wastewater treatment. Our technically qualified scientists are continuously engaged in the development of potent microbial consortia through exhaustive and isolation testing methods. In order to provide efficient solutions, we develop lab scale models of specific effluent treatment plants in order to simulate real-time conditions in order to improve the performance of our products before taking them to plant levels. We also have a large collection of potent strains in our culture banks with a specific blend of formulations which remain in stable conditions for years. The products have proven their efficacy at the lab levels, followed by the on-site trials through a stringent process of quality assurance before launch, standard specifications development, safety and toxicological evaluation, and stability studies. 

Kindly elaborate on the technology solutions offered by Organica Biotech. 

Organica Biotech is an organisation that has been able to keep up with the dynamic nature of our growing industries and provide microbial solutions by understanding and analysing ETP processes and gaps in order to provide a complete 360-degree solution.

Our “Cleanmaxx’’ range of products has been developed after 21 intensive years of research and modifications. Cleanmaxx has been customised with 96 selected microbial strains to enhance the degradation process without making operational changes in a plant. Cleanmaxx provides effective biodegradation of intricate compounds into simple compounds through benefits of reduction in COD levels and alleviation of hazardous and recalcitrant components from the system. It can degrade a wide range of compounds like surfactants, fats, oil, mercaptans, phenols, aromatic compounds, etc.

The microbes used in Cleanmaxx are conferred with GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) status and facilitate the recycling of waste. The varied nature of these microbes reduces start-up times after commissioning and enables effective handling of shock loads even at high TDS levels. Our products perform in adverse environmental conditions. The products are also crafted for a wide range of processes like activated sludge processing, anaerobic reactors, extended aeration, attached growth, MBR, SBR, MMBR, Bio Trickling Filters, UASBs etc.