A textile and garment industry located in Hanumakonda district of Telangana has been able to treat its textile effluents at a very reasonable cost. Thanks to energy-efficient and ecological technology developed using biosurfactants and membrane technology.
Textile wastewater is heavily contaminated with pollutants such as dyes, dissolved solids, suspended solids and toxic metals, and therefore robust and efficient technologies are needed to treat these wastes before they are released into the environment.
NIT Warangal along with Prime Textiles, Rampur based at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park (KMTP) with the support of IMPRINT, a joint effort of MoE and SERB, have developed a pilot textile wastewater treatment plant using biosurfactants (BS), cavitation (a process in which pressure changes in liquid in a short period of time to cause the formation of countless small cavities and their subsequent implosion – C), and membrane (M) technology.
Initially, scientists Prof. Shirish H. Sonawane, NIT Warangal, Dr. Murali Mohan Seepana, NIT Warangal, Dr. Ajey Kumar Patel, NIT Warangal and Dr. Mousumi Debnath, Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) developed individual systems in laboratories and process parameters were optimized. Biosurfactant for use in the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) was extracted from microorganisms isolated from textile wastewater and soil contaminated with MUJ textile wastes.
The use of BS in MBBR helped in dye removal and was effective in reducing operating time and cost (compared to other bioremediation methods). Cavitation (C), an advanced oxidation process (AOP), has helped reduce installation costs and also reduce the carbon footprint.
The ability of the technology to generate oxidative radicals in-situ has greatly reduced the dependence on external oxidizing agents. On the other hand, the treatment of the membrane surface (M) with boehmite sol synthesized by the sol–gel process reduced the pore size from microscale to nanoscale and led to a significant improvement in its performance. After optimizing the individual systems, a pilot setup was set up at the Prime Textiles campus.
The sequence of events that take place in a semi-operational facility plays an important role in the wastewater treatment process. Coagulation removes turbidity caused by suspended solids by destabilizing the particle charge using a chemical coagulant. Biofilm grown on MBBR reduces the content of heavy metals, degrades biodegradable pollutants, while the cavitation phenomenon destroys all types of pollutants, resulting in the in situ generation of radicals and energy that are responsible for pollutant degradation. Finally, the surface-modified membrane separates all pollutants present in the wastewater. With this sequence, a pilot plant with a capacity of 200 liters per day removes pollutants and the treated water can be used for agricultural activities and cleaning purposes.
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