Review
Remediation of textile effluents by membrane based treatment techniques: A state of the art review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.08.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Role of membrane technology in textile effluent treatment is critically reviewed.

  • Parameters and product quality of different membrane techniques are discussed.

  • Loopholes in membrane technology are identified.

  • Simulations of membrane based textile wastewater treatment methods are summarized.

  • Techno-economic evaluation studies on these membrane based processes are appraised.

Abstract

The textile industries hold an important position in the global industrial arena because of their undeniable contributions to basic human needs satisfaction and to the world economy. These industries are however major consumers of water, dyes and other toxic chemicals. The effluents generated from each processing step comprise substantial quantities of unutilized resources. The effluents if discharged without prior treatment become potential sources of pollution due to their several deleterious effects on the environment. The treatment of heterogeneous textile effluents therefore demands the application of environmentally benign technology with appreciable quality water reclamation potential. These features can be observed in various innovative membrane based techniques. The present review paper thus elucidates the contributions of membrane technology towards textile effluent treatment and unexhausted raw materials recovery. The reuse possibilities of water recovered through membrane based techniques, such as ultrafiltration and nanofiltration in primary dye houses or auxiliary rinse vats have also been explored. Advantages and bottlenecks, such as membrane fouling associated with each of these techniques have also been highlighted. Additionally, several pragmatic models simulating transport mechanism across membranes have been documented. Finally, various accounts dealing with techno-economic evaluation of these membrane based textile wastewater treatment processes have been provided.

Introduction

Today's world stands as a witness to the revolutionizing socio-economic impacts of various industries. Unfortunately, the development of industrial sector has whipped up certain unintended repercussions, resulting in an unavoidable trade-off between industrial progress and environmental degradation. Textile industries, for instance, are one of the largest consumers of water, dyes and various processing chemicals that are used during the various stages of textile processing. Subsequently, substantial quantities of effluents are generated, mostly consisting of spent or unutilized resources, which are not suitable for further usage. These effluents are likely to cause environmental problems if discharged without prior treatment. The wastewater obtained from the textile industry is usually rich in color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), complex chemicals, inorganic salts, total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, temperature, turbidity and salinity (Verma et al., 2012, CPCB, 2007). According to the classification suggested by Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), textile wastes can be divided into four principal categories, namely the dispersible, hard-to-treat, high-volume, and hazardous and toxic wastes (Foo and Hameed, 2010). Among the various complex constituents present in textile wastewaters, the dyes can be inarguably considered as the most peremptory source of contamination. The direct discharge of the coloured textile effluent into the fresh water bodies adversely affects the aesthetic merit, water transparency and dissolved oxygen content (Duarte et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2009). Besides, these dyes exhibit highly complex structure, high molecular weight and low biodegradability (Verma et al., 2012, ElDefrawy and Shaalan, 2007). This accounts for its toxic effects on flora and fauna present in the water bodies. Further, these dyes are mutagenic and carcinogenic (Wang et al., 2009). The presence of these relatively recalcitrant dyes along with inorganic salts, acids, bases and other residual chemicals in the effluent directly discharged into the sewage networks impedes the biological treatment processes (Arslan-Alaton et al., 2008). Also, the chance evaporation of these chemicals in to the air we breathe or adsorption onto human skin is capable of inducing allergic reactions (Khandegar and Saroha, 2013).

Perhaps, the greatest danger to environmental sustainability is posed by the outrageously high amount of primary water consumption by the textile sector, which has, in all probability, resulted in the depletion of available fresh water resources. The deficit in the availability of water can be gauged by the fact the currently the Indian textile industry consumes 0.2 m3 of water per kg of textiles fabricated (Parvathi et al., 2009), while generating 200–350 m3 of wastewater per ton of finished product (Ranganathan et al., 2007). According to the recent survey conducted by FICCI Water Mission (2011), the water demand for the industrial sector is likely to witness a rise due to the impending industrial growth as also a significant rise in population; this will probably account for 8.5 and 10.1 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal in 2025 and 2050 respectively. Thus, a 4 per cent hike from the current 6 per cent level of the total freshwater abstraction by the industries (as per 2010 statistics) is estimated. The dwindling supply of water is hence a concomitant outcome of development of industrial sector, and is bound to bring about a declination in the performance of the textile sector owing to the aggravated paucity of water resources, or deterioration in the quality of water available. These deleterious consequences have compelled the researchers to examine the suitability of the various conventional treatment technologies for treating textile industry wastewater. The sole objective of such investigations is to devise and develop a wastewater treatment technique which is environmentally compatible, cost-effective and at the same time successful in reducing the concentration of various contaminants in the textile effluent to permissible levels, which comply with the current environmental imperatives. The effluent treatment process should also be equally adept in reclaiming the water using in textile processing to a great extent; such an arrangement is indispensable for sustainable development of the industrial sector and of the country as a whole.

Various treatment techniques are in use to mitigate the contaminant levels of textile wastewaters. Table 1 provides a broad overview of the various conventional as well as recently engineered treatment processes employed to bring about the treatment of textile effluents. However, these methods suffer from certain serious handicaps. For instance, the otherwise eco-friendly biological processes, such as the conventional activated sludge systems (Lotito et al., 2012b, Lotito et al., 2011) or anaerobic textile waste bioremediation processes (Türgay et al., 2011) often lack flexibility; their respective efficiencies are adversely affected by the biologically persistent constitution of the pollutants present in the textile wastewater as well as by the diurnal fluctuation in the problem environment in terms of variation in wastewater pH, temperature or concentration of contaminants in the textile wastewaters (Kapdan et al., 2000, Oller et al., 2011). Additionally, these biological treatment methods do not bring about complete mineralization of the target dye contaminants. Hence, the toxicity of the discharged effluent is often exacerbated by the chance regeneration of the primary organic constituents of the textile dyes. This drawback severely impedes the scale-up of the biological treatment technique due to the resulting reactor instability (ElDefrawy and Shaalan, 2007, Robinson et al., 2001). The complex rheology of the textile discharge therefore entails either singular or combined application of the physicochemical methods, such as chlorination, coagulation–flocculation (Al-Ani and Li, 2012, Gao et al., 2007, Yang et al., 2013), adsorption (Mezohegyi et al., 2012) and advanced oxidation processes, such as, ozonation (Somensi et al., 2010), Fenton treatments (Karthikeyan et al., 2011), electro-Fenton methods (Yu et al., 2013), photo-Fenton oxidation processes (Punzi et al., 2012), and photoelectrocatalytic reaction (Sapkal et al., 2012), for complete degradation of the toxic textile wastewater components (Álvarez et al., 2013, Lotito et al., 2012a, Oller et al., 2011, Torrades and García-Montaño, 2014). The potential of the adsorption technology remains largely untapped due to the limitations posed by environment-friendly disposal of spent adsorbents, difficulty in regeneration of spent adsorbents, reduction in reactivated adsorbent efficiencies, high costs of the adsorbents and the maintenance expenses involved (Robinson et al., 2001, Verma et al., 2012). Advanced oxidation processes, such as, ozonation are not economically attractive (Ong et al., 2014). Additionally, ozonation suffers from an inconveniently short half-life and hence the technique usually exhibits inadequate decolourization efficiencies for insoluble azoics and disperse dyes, which are prone to slow reaction. Its stability, moreover, fluctuates severely with variations in temperature, pH, and salt concentrations (Robinson et al., 2001, Verma et al., 2012). The chemicals used in operations such as coagulation and chlorination not only increase the treatment costs, but also tend to amass by-products and residues in bulk; these unconsumed waste products, thereafter, evolve into sources of secondary pollutants, hence resulting in considerable declination in the recovered water quality. Furthermore, the time consuming trials involved in selecting the coagulant/coagulants suitable for a specific kind of effluent also adds to the limitations of the coagulation–flocculation technique (Chakraborty, 2010, Robinson et al., 2001). Additionally, the degradation products present in the recycled liquor, more often than not, adsorb onto the fibres during the fabrication of textiles, and tamper with the dyeing process, to the detriment of fabric quality (Schäfer et al., 2005). Also, the effectiveness of operations such as flocculation is markedly curbed by the high electrolytic strength usually observed for the textile effluents. Besides, these chemicals and by-products generate a huge volume of sludge, which makes sludge handling difficult and contributes significantly to disposal costs (Somensi et al., 2010, Yang et al., 2013). These drawbacks can be satisfactorily overcome using membrane based wastewater treatment processes, which include microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis or hybridization of two or more of these membrane based techniques. The membrane technology is normally hailed as clean and environmentally benign technology. The inherent simplicity of the membrane technology, the provision of modular design for handling large industrial-scale feed volumes, operation under moderate temperature conditions with no phase change, and the negligible use of additives are some of the advantageous aspects of membrane based treatment techniques (Dutta, 2007). Besides, no waste by-products or secondary pollutants are usually encountered; additionally, the appreciable retention efficiencies and stability characterizing most of the membrane based processes under varying experimental environment enable easy scale up of these techniques (Dasgupta et al., 2014, Koltuniewicz and Drioli, 2008, Ong et al., 2014) These advantages hence account for the growing interest in membrane technology. However, a major downside of the membrane based processes is membrane fouling (Van der Bruggen et al., 2008). Abatement of membrane fouling problems and reduction in membrane replacement costs can be brought about by regular cleaning of membranes and appropriate selection of the membrane filtration techniques, in accordance with the textile waste stream characteristics (Cheng et al., 2012, Dutta, 2007). Furthermore, the initial capital or start-up costs are offset by the expenses saved in terms of competent reuse of salts, sizable recovery of dyes and water (Kurt et al., 2012, Qin et al., 2007). The reclaimed water is usually characterized by low hardness making it suitable for reuse in textile facilities (Ranganathan et al., 2007). Additionally, the relatively short payback period witnessed in many membrane based techno-economical investigations has made the membrane based treatment processes comparatively more cost-effective than other energy-intensive processes, such as evaporation (Praneeth et al., 2014); the operational cost advantages over conventional treatment methods is also an added benefit. The membrane based techniques are hence currently viewed as technologically and economically lucrative options for industrial effluents treatment; the textile industry is one of the principal beneficiaries of the membrane based treatment processes (Fersi et al., 2005, Koltuniewicz and Drioli, 2008, Marcucci et al., 2002).

The present review paper explores the degree of success achieved by several membrane based filtration processes in bringing about appreciable reduction of the various contaminants present in the textile effluents below permissible levels. This critical assessment also seeks solutions to the problems faced by membrane technology from the analyses outlined in various investigations reported in literature. Archival reports on the methods or feasible modifications applied to enhance the economic viability of these techniques have also been assayed.

Section snippets

Various stages of textile manufacturing industry: composition and characteristics of the generated wastewaters

The processing techniques used in the various textile mills can be broadly classified as wet processing and dry processing, in accordance with the properties of the effluents generated therein (Verma et al., 2012). Effluents generated in textile mills, especially in the wet processing ones vary greatly in composition and degree of toxicity, depending on the recipes of raw materials administered, specific processes in operation, the current processing stage under consideration, the machineries

Membrane based processes

As already mentioned earlier, traditional treatment techniques suffer from a number of loopholes. The application of membrane based processes in such cases can quite effectively surmount most of these drawbacks. Fig. S1 (Appendix S1) delineates the textile effluent treatment scheme adopted by Arulpuram Common Effluent Treatment Plant, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, operating under Zero Liquid Discharge conditions. The conceptual flow diagram in Fig. S1 reveals that the treatment facility has been broadly

Modelling and analysis

The discussion on membrane based treatment processes is incomplete without an elaborate perception of the mechanism governing the transport of solute across the membranes and comprehensive modelling of membrane based techniques. Simulation of the performance of various membrane based processes is an indispensable preliminary to the meticulous monitoring of solute transport through membranes (Foley, 2013).

Formulation of a near-accurate predictive model for any membrane based separation

Economic evaluation of textile wastewater treatment using membrane based processes

The applicability of any process in the industrial avenue can be ascertained only after analyzing the pragmatism of the process from the economic perspective. Hence, a number of evaluations were conducted by various scientists to verify the economic feasibility of membrane based techniques, so as to ensure the successful employment of these methods in textile industries (He et al., 2011, Ranganathan et al., 2007, Van der Bruggen et al., 2004). The present section illustrates some of these

Conclusion

The present critical appraisal clearly highlights the fact that the role essayed by these membrane based treatment methods in generating reclaimable textile effluents is quite palpable. The judicious selection of the appropriate membrane based method is, however, influenced by the quality of the treated process stream desired, characteristics of the membrane and the rheological heterogeneity of the effluent at hand, as well as the position of the process in the cost spectrum. For instance, the

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