INTEGRATED BIOSORPTION AND MEMBRANE-BASED TREATMENT OF TEXTILE WASTEWATER USING ROOT BIOMASS OF VARIOUS PLANTS: A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH FOR EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT IN TEXTILE CLUSTERS

Abstract

The study findings indicate that the root biomass of Prosopis juliflora, Ipomoea carnea, and Lantana camara can be used for the effective biosorption of textile effluent from the textile industry. The multi-stage treatment process used in this research has improved the overall efficiency of removing pollutants from the wastewater; therefore, this will result in greater quality of water treated. The overall impact of the study will provide a sustainable and economically feasible alternative for treatment of textile effluent in industrialising locations such as Karur and Tiruppur. There is scope to build on this work, as well as look at other advanced treatment techniques and scale up the research conducted here. To increase the elimination of dyes and related pollutants, biosorbents were developed and used in a sequential multi-stage system. The influence of key operational parameters such as pH level, contact time, amount of adsorbent, and dye concentration, on the adsorption process were each tested to evaluate performance and optimize the adsorption process. The multi-stage approach of the proposed system combines the adsorption potentials and complementary mechanisms of the plant root biomass selected for use in the proposed biosorption, along with some partial biodegradation via biosorption, leading to increased removal efficiency for pollutants. In addition to increasing the quality of treated wastewater by biosorption, downstream membrane filtration technologies (microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) were used on a combined basis to allow for complete removal of suspended solids, soluble pollutants and residual dye; which improved the quality of effluent produced through this method. The study evidenced that invasive aquatic plant root biomass is a renewable resource that can be reutilized to effectively treat wastewater via both biological and membrane-based processes, thus providing a new, ecologically sound method for treating textile wastewater and developing large scale processes for use in industry.