Wastewater Treatment in Textile Industry

This report discusses the wastewater treatment process in the textile industry, including the methods used and the challenges faced. It also provides solutions and recommendations for improving waste management. The report explores the economic, social, and environmental impacts of wastewater treatment in the textile industry.

Running head: WASTEWATER TREATMENT
1
WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Name
Institution
WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

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Table of content
Executive summary…………………………………………………………………..3
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...4
Results and discussion………………………………………………………………...5
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..8
Recommendations……………………………………………………………………..8
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...9

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 3
Executive summary
The textile industry is one of the known industrial plants that use a lot of water in their
production process for washing the raw materials as well in several flushing steps involved. The
used in the production process comes out as an affluent, polluted with fats, oil, colour and so
many other chemicals produced as well. Several waste treatment processes can be adopted by the
textile industrial for wastewater treatment. They include a biological treatment plant,
physicochemical treatment process.
Their choice for use depends on the composition of the wastewater produced. This report
discusses the whole process involved in waste treatment as well as the comparison of the various
method adopted by the textile industry. The report also points problems or the technicalities
encountered during the entire steps of waste treatment and their possible solutions. Moreover, the
assessment looks into the economic social and environmental impact involved in the whole
process, the byproducts evolved and their possible reuse in the market and finally the
recommendations that should be adopted by the textile industry to improve o their waste
management system.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 4
Introduction
Wastewater treatment plants are those system designed to efficiently treat the
effluent produced from different part of the industry to ensure the disposal of waste-free
water in the environment. Wastewater treatment adopted by the various sectors varies
with the type of wastewater treated as well as the constituents forming the effluent. The
sewage under treatment undergoes several steps before fully certified to be released into
the environment or for reuse in the industry as well (Gao, & Wen, 2016). These series of
actions include the coagulation step, the flocculation, and aeration and lastly the filtration
stage. The wastewater produced has a composition of high, BOD, pH, TSS, TDS and
colourisation from the used dye. This report singles out textile industry to assess how
they manage their wastewater, various processes involved in the treatment of sewage,
problems incurred during the entire process, improvements needed to be made on the
whole or part of the plant to ensure perfection in the wastewater treatment process. The
byproducts produced from the recycled effluent and their possible application or reuse in
the market, and the economic, social and environmental impacts associated with the
whole process of wastewater treatment.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 5
Results &Discussion
The various process is undertaken in the textile industry generate wastes that are mostly
water-based effluent. Just as mentioned in the introductory statement above, the textile industry
is water intensive in terms of the water they need for the processes involved (Gao, & Wen,
2016). The amount of wastewater released is therefore tremendous, full of toxic chemicals used
in the dying, printing and finishing processes involved in producing clothing materials.
Water is consumed in different stages in the textile industry in the production of textile
goods. A lot is wasted in spinning, weaving, and chemical processing as well the garment
manufacturing. Chemical processing according to their statistics takes the lion share of the total
water consumed. Other operations such as machines cleaning, washing of the products produced,
and rinsing operations also consume a percentage of the full water used. Some portions of water
are also used in the water treatment plant in the steam rejection, periodic cleaning of the reverse
osmosis plant, regeneration and washing of demineralisation — this formed part of the
discussion in this report.
The wastewater produced is characterised by the type of chemicals and material used in
the production of the textile goods (Gao, & Wen, 2016). The wastewater emitted contains the
residual chemicals that remain in the effluent from all the process involved. Furthermore, certain
natural impurities such as waxes, proteins molecules, pigments, spinning oils and the sizing
chemicals used in the processing of textile goods also form part of sewage produced. The
resulting water produce is characterised with high BOD, TDS and COD constituents as shown in
table 1 below.
Table 1: Composition of the untreated wastewater from textile industry (Fabric
processing).
Constituents Units Typical
Values
The DOE
standards
Appearance - colloidal -
pH - 9-10 7-10
Colour - Intensively
coloured
-
Heavy
metals
Mg/l 15-20 Varies
depending on the
metal
Suspended
solids
Mg/l 300-400 200
Total
Dissolved
Solids(TDS)
Mg/l 4000-7000 2200
Chemical
Oxygen
Demand(COD)
Mg/l 1400-1650 300
Biochemica
l Oxygen Demand
(BOD)
Mg/l 600-700 20
Oil and Mg/l 50-80 10

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grease
Surfactants Mg/l 20-50 5
Sulphide as
S
Mg/l 70-80 12
Wastewater treatment process generally occurs in four levels. The preliminary level
forms the first level, which usually involves the removal of large solid particles from the
wastewater that cause damage to the plant. These solid particles include grit, grease, and sticks
(Gao, & Wen, 2016). The second level (primary level), sieving out floating and settable
suspended solid particles and organic matter takes place. The next level is the secondary level
that involves removal of suspending solid particles as well as the biodegradable organic matter.
Last level (the tertiary level) consists of getting rid of the suspended solids.
In the comparison of various processes involved in wastewater management, three
methods are considered.
The wastewater treatment process involves combining several methods and operations to
achieve the recommended level of waste removal from industrial wastewater. The combination
of these processes is because each of the actions has its weakness and the limits on the type of
waste they can effectively remove (Gao, & Wen, 2016). Biological treatment plant for example
through the screening step, equalisation, pH control step, aeration and settling can only meet the
BOD, pH, TSS and the oil requirements. The process, however, cannot effectively remove
complexes chemicals such as the dye as they are difficult to be biodegraded by the
microorganisms.
Combination of the biological wastewater treatment plant with the physicochemical
treatment plant help to solve the problems incurred in the organic analysis system. Physico-
chemical treatment plant through the process of screening, equalisation, pH control, chemical
storage tanks, mixing units, flocculation unit, settling unit and sludge dewatering can remove the
dye. However, it cannot adequately satisfy the BOD and COD requirements. Moreover,
physicochemical treatment cannot remove TDS; hence a need to be combined with biological
treatment plant processes that can effectively remove TDS from the wastewater.
The two processes discussed above, however, are not very favourable, as they are capital
intensive in terms of the maintenance cost and operation cost making them very expensive. Reed
bed process, a form of a biological treatment plant is used instead since it involves lower
maintenance cost, low operation cost (Gao, & Wen, 2016). Also, reed bed effectively removes
colourisation in the wastewater, decrease the COD to meet the standard required value. It can
adequately raise the amount of oxygen dissolved in the wastewater as well as the removal of
heavy metals in the sewer. Therefore the type of combination of wastewater management
processes adopted by the textile industry depends entirely on the kind of wastewater in terms of
the composition. Several methods and operations are involved in the wastewater treatment to
ensure that the water coming out from the industrial textile plant is safe for reuse and o the
environment as well.
To help address all these problems associated with the use of these processes and
operations. New technology was developed by the SSP that efficiently converts the wastewater
through an advanced treatment process that removes the waste materials rendering safe for reuse
in the industry. As earlier mentioned, the whole process is extremely costly in terms of the
financial resources required to meet the standard required for the wastewater to be released or for
the reuse.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 7
Recycling and reuse of the byproducts produced are one of the strategies that the
textile industry uses to ensure that they operate within favourable financial conditions and to help
minimise the operating cost involved (Gao, & Wen, 2016). The purified water forms one of the
wastewater by a product that is recycled and reused repeatedly in the same process of wastewater
treatment as well as in other methods such as dying process, printing as well as finishing. Since
the various salt such as sulphates used in the dying process form one of the characteristics of the
wastewater, they are recycled and their byproduct took to the market for sale.
The wastewater treatment process is associated with some social, economic and
environmental aspects on the environment (Antoine, 2018). The reuse of the byproducts
produced, for example, the resale of the salts produced as well the reuse of the purified water in
the same process renders the process very economical. However, to some extent, the wastewater
treatment process is costly in terms of the cost of materials and equipment involved. The cost of
maintenances of the whole process is prohibitive as well as the running cost making the whole
process somehow uneconomical. In terms of the environmental impacts, the intensive water
nature of the textile industry continuously depletes the underground water as a lot of water is
involved in the production processes in the textile industry as well as in the wastewater treatment
plant. The method of wastewater management, on the other hand, conserves the environment
when flowing free water is released into the atmosphere. Socially, a clean environment free from
waste materials ensures a healthy life.
The wastewater treatment process in the textile industry undergoes through a series of
stages in sequence until pure water is ready for reuse (Antoine, 2018). The first step is the
cooling and the mixing phase. The already filtered effluent at the primary filtration moves to the
cooling and mixing tank in which a paddle mixer uniformly mixes the content of the waste as
cooling progress in the cooling tower. Once the wastewater is thoroughly mixed and cooled, it
then flows to the neutralisation stage. Here, the right pH is maintained based on the pH status of
the incoming effluent. If it is an acidic waste, then it is neutralised by a base, and the reverse is
valid for the essential wastewater.
The resulting wastewater with the right pH then flows to the coagulation tank at the
coagulation step. Suspended materials, pigments, aluminium, ferrous, sulphate, ferric chloride,
chlorinated copper are removed using chemical coagulation combined with the coagulation gain
such as polyacrylate. The effluent is then pumped to the setting and separation of sludge stage.
At the setting and sludge separation stage, a blanket of flocculent forms from the soluble organic
matter and light suspended solids (Antoine, 2018). The suspended sheet formed is removed
leaving the remaining solution that is then pumped to the pressure filter sage. At the pressure
filter stage, the resulting wastewater is pumped by the vacuum pumped through the filter to
remove the suspended flocks at the fine pressure filter. The effluent free water is then recycled
for use in the same plant since it requires a lot of water. The flowchart below shows every stage
involved in the wastewater purification.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 8
Conclusion
The textile industry plays an exclusively important role especially in the industrial sector
as it is one of the critical drivers of the country's economy. When the untreated wastewater is
released into the environment, this can be very harmful to human life and the living
microorganism. This is because sewage contains a high value for the Biochemical Oxygen
Demand which causes depletion of the natural dissolve oxygen molecules in water hence very
unsafe for human as well as aquatic life (Antoine, 2018). Moreover, the effluent can seriously
affect marine life as well as impairing various biological processes if it contains traces of
chromium, a vital component of the dye used in the textile industry. To achieve the correct
standards of the water to be released into the environment, both physicochemical and biological
treatment process is used for the wastewater treatment that ensures that all the environmental
aspect of the wastewater are closely monitored for to avoid their negative impacts on the
environment.
Recommendations
The textile industry should adopt the use of substantive dyes during the dying and
printing stage of producing textile materials to help reduce the number of pigments in the
wastewater produced for natural treatment (Antoine, 2018). For the mesh sizes, the textile
industry should consider the use of polyphosphate membrane as opposed to the use of reverse
osmosis for better resistance during extreme temperatures and pH.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS 9
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