Treatment of Textile Industrial Wastewater using Hydrophilized Polyamide Nanofiltration Membrane for Water Recovery and Reuse

Abstract

The textile industry is very water intensive. Water is used for cleaning the raw material and for many flushing steps during the entire production process. During the process a large quantity of wastewater is produced which consists of dyes, heavy metals, pigments, and surfactants in high concentration levels all around the world. Dyes and other chemical laden wastewater released by textile industries is a major concern for the treatment which causes an important threat to serious environmental and public health problems before discharge. Membrane technology plays a key role in effective separation of textile industry wastewater (TIWW) in terms of “state of the art technologies”. Nanofiltration is one of the most effective separation processes for the removal of pollutants from TIWW. The present study mainly focused on the following issues such as characteristics of wastewater, minimization, treatment, recycle/reuse and final disposal of wastewater. The paper deals with the description of the treatment of TIWW using the Hydrophilized polyamide-based Nanofiltration membrane (HPA-100-NF). The experiments were conducted to a significant reduction in parameters such as COD, TDS, Turbidity, and color. From the results, the % of water recovery was found to be 70-80% successful. The complete removal of color and turbidity was observed which states the overall process was technically feasible and cost-effective and beneficial for the environment. The treated water can be reused for various purposes such as gardening, landscaping, groundwater recharge, irrigation, floor cleaning, and cooling towers in industries to protect the environment as well as save freshwater for the future generation.