Stable Bleaching Powder (SBP) an effective & useful disinfectant product; provides disease free water to Shrimps & facilitates high crop yield in Shrimp farming

Introduction:

Shrimp farming sector is one of thefastest growing segment in Indiatoday. This segment has widelyspread across Indian coastal line.It involves raising of shrimps in anorganized & professional mannerto sell them as a food in domesticand international market. Shrimpscarefully grown to a particular sizeand weight to attract better sellingvalue.

Over the years, the Indian shrimpfarming process have gone throughvarious operational modifications.This is to overcome the difficulties &problems faced while shrimps grownin farming. Disease attack is one ofsuch difficulty faced by famers acrossIndia. To achieve successful shrimpfarming and protecting shrimpsfrom disease, proper operationalpractices are prime necessary tofollow. Disinfection of intake waterto provide a safer environmentto growing shrimps is one of suchcrucial activity. Stable BleachingPowder (SBP) has proved to be thebest economical yet safer productover the years in providing effectivedisinfection of intake water in whichthe shrimps are cultivated. A chlorinebased Stable bleaching powderproduct has a strong ability to killtroublesome microorganisms presentin intake water and provide a saferwater quality to facilitate the healthy& high growth of shrimps. This paperdiscusses the proper handling & proper utilization of this effectiveDisinfectant product to become thebest friend of farmers and improvingshrimp production yield in theirfarming.

Why Stable Bleaching Powder is apreferred choice?

Chlorine & chlorine-allied products arethe most widely used disinfectantsin various cases over several yearsglobally. All the halogens fromperiodic table possess biocidalproperties, however among themChlorine is a popular, readily availableand cheapest.Many water treatment bodiesworldwide consume chlorine intreating drinking water. Chlorineeffectively kills various types ofmicroorganisms from water.

Chlorine gas feeding & handling inaquaculture ponds is a high risk:

While Chlorine is a popular choice,regarding the use of gaseous Chlorineat shrimp ponds, one need to beextreme careful about and possiblyavoid of using it at aquaculture ponds. Chlorine at ambient conditionsobserved as greenish-yellow gaswith an irritating odor. It is about 2.5times heavier than atmospheric air.Any mishandling or an unfortunateincident can lead to fatality. AtShrimp pond farming locations, wedo not commonly see the availabilityof highest standards of safetyinfrastructural facilities, thus oneneed to think twice before opting todose gaseous chlorine in shrimp pondand maintaining chlorine containersat farming area. In addition, it isutmost necessary for each of us tounderstand and strictly follow thepolicies & guidelines laid down byour various government & safetyregulatory authorities on gaseouschlorine handling.

Stable Bleaching powder (SBP):

Among the currently market availabledisinfectant products, Stablebleaching Powder is most preferablyused in aquaculture ponds acrossindia due to its readily availability,low purchasing cost and user-friendlyproperties.

SBP is in various use to humankindsince last many years. Historyreferences state that SBP widelyused during First World War timefor preventing spreading infectiousdieses emerged out of war situation.SBP is an inorganic compound baringCa(OCl)2 chemical formulae. It iscommercially and widely known asStable Bleaching Powder in India. Thiswhite colored powdery solid- statecompound offer around 35% Chlorineto user. It carries pungent chorinesmell.Chlorine gas and hydrated limeare the major compounds withwhich Stable Bleaching Powdermanufactured in large industries.The right quality of hydrated lime &chlorine along with professionallymanaged manufacturing processplays a crucial role in producingsuperior quality of SBP product. Thisensures an elimination the presenceofheavy metals in final product andthus providing safer water quality toshrimp and ultimately a safer food tothe consumers.

Stable Bleaching powder reactionwith water:

SBP when reacts with water,decomposes to liberate Chlorine.Chlorine is an excellent biocide asits strong oxidizing nature, pulls inelectron while the victimized bacterialoses electron. Chlorine attackmicroorganisms by oxidizing cellularstructure, passing through the cellwall and disturbing its metabolicactivities. This killing mechanismarrest developing immunizationeffect by these microorganisms overchlorine and its allied products. That is why these products commonly usedfor disinfection over several yearsand yet they are still very effectiveagainst the microorganism. Chlorineand its allied products includingStable Bleaching Powder are called asoxidizing biocides

Right way of achieving residualchlorine from stable bleachingpowder:

Generally, proper measurement ofresidual Chlorine, its monitoringand maintaining in pond water, helpdisinfecting water properly. Enoughresidual level of chlorine in watermost times kill microorganismspresent in pond water. This facilitatesproper growth of shrimps in pond.At field site, there are couple of fieldtest methods followed by farmersfor measuring residual chlorine levelin pond water. Sometimes some ofthese Free Residual Chlorine (FRC)measurement techniques doesnot differentiate free residual andcombined residual of chlorine inwater at absolute level. In such cases,it gives high residual chlorine valuesand bring satisfaction at farmer’s end,however this can be misleading. ThisCombined Residual Chlorine (CRC)is observed when we feed Chlorine(through SBP product) reacts withcontaminantspresent in water.These contaminantspresent in water eatup all the chlorine, wedose. This consumedchlorine for oxidizingcontaminantspresent in wateris not available foreffective killing ofmicroorganism. The amount of chlorine requires oxidizinginorganic & organic contaminantspresent in water called as “chlorinedemand” of water. Such highpresence of contaminants in watergenerate high chlorine demand andwarrants higher quantity dosingof SBP product. There are some ofgeographical areas in our country,where nearby industrial effluentand city sewage water is beingdischarged in such creek water andunfortunately, the shrimp farmingintake water location are alsonearby to it. This create a high risk ofcontaminants entering in pond waterand abnormally increasing chlorinedemand of water. Some time, wealso see that the shrimp pond waterafter harvesting, is also dischargednear to someone else’s intake pointfor fresh crop. This also ingressescontaminant’s entry in fresh pondwater. We need to note that in suchcontaminated water, unless we firstoxidize all contaminants present inwater, we will not able to reach trueand helpful Chlorine residual level inpond water. It is advisable to checkchlorine demand test of water asa first point. This will help you tounderstand the SBP requirement asa real case. This will also help farmersavoiding over as well as underfeeding of SBP product in ponds. In case ofpresence of contamination in water,the further investigation

Chlorine Demand of water:

is also solicited for finding the nature& extent of contaminants. Sometimesome of these contaminants can bedetrimental to shrimp growth. Eg.Heavy metals..etc.Generally, market available, BISstandard complying stable bleachingPowder possess 35% Chlorine in it.This states, to achieve about 1-partresidual Chlorine in clean water withSBP product, one need to dose about3 part of product assuming zero nopresence of oxidizable contaminant inthat water and possess zero chlorinedemand.

Water pH:

When chlorine, come in contact withwater, it forms Hypochlorous acid,Hydrochloric acid and hypochloriteIons. pH of the water decides theextent of formation of above three.Acidic water pH favors Hydrochloricacid formation, whereas alkalinewater pH >7.5, the hypochlorite ionformation starts predominating.While water pH window of 6.5-7.5generate hypochloprous acid.HOCl- has found to be carrying themost capability of effectively killingmicroorganisms.

ORP technology:

Oxidation Reduction Potential is an old and user-friendly gadget tomonitor and maintain the residualChlorine in water. This has beenin use at various water treatmentapplications worldwide.Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) 

is a potential of disinfectant to killmicroorganisms present in water.It is a direct measure of disinfectionpower of any oxidizing disinfectantfed in water at a given circumstance.ORP measured in mili Volts. HigherORP value indicate higher abilityof disinfection power. More thecontaminants & chlorine demandin water, lesser will the ORP values.Generally drinking water, swimmingpool water are adequately disinfectedat around 500 mV to 800 mV.It advised to follow ORPmeasurement while chlorine is fedin water. ORP, measure only freeresidual chlorine and not combinedchlorine. This is highly advantageousto optimize the SBP dosage in wateryet earning maximum output fromSBP. Very handy & portable (pocketcarrying) ORP maters are muchavailable in market and they havefound it as a very useful tool at field.

On-field guidance from Grasim’stechnical team:

Superlative performance deliveryfrom every chemical is depended ontwo major factors.1) Manufacturing of superior qualityproduct and 2) Adhering right productapplication knowledge to get the bestout-put from that product.We at Grasim provide utmostimportance to both these factorsand dedicatedly work on both thesefactors tosee thatthe shrimpframer’spurposebehindbuyingGrasimSBP fullyachieved.Grasim’sexpertisetechnical team spend time onfield with shrimp farmers, carriesfield training workshops, testingdemonstrations..etc to bring the rightteaching & awareness to farmers onSBP product handling to get the bestreturn from it.

Summery:

Stable Beaching Powder is aneffective, useful & farmer’s userfriendly product to achieve properdisinfection in intake water. Thisproduct provides right environmentfor growth of shrimps. While sayingso, it is also necessary for farmersto follow right operating practicesand techniques to get the mostout of SBP. It is always advisableto conduct detailed study ofintake water first. Some of the keysuggested parameters to be checkedwould be Chemical Oxygen Demand(COD), Chlorine Demand, OxidationReduction potential (ORP), Dissolvedoxygen etc. A proper disinfection ofintake water would be a right baselinefor proper growth of shrimps andthis can be achieved following rightfree residual chlorine measurementtechniques. Oxidation Reductionpotential (ORP) can be a techniquecan help in achieving adequate levelof free residual chlorine level in waterfor disinfection. This can also help inoptimizing the consumption of SBPyet to get to most out of SBP.

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Authors : Rajendra Parab, Chandrashekhar Kubal and Mehul Patel from Chlor-Alkali Business of India