Assessing the Degradation of Organics in Surgical Cotton Processing Wastewater by Mixed Microbial Culture and Photo-Catalysis

Abstract

Cotton bandage processing textile industry is the major manufacturing product of Rajapalayam town in south Tamilnadu, India. Processing of surgical cottons consumes significant amounts of water during manufacturing, creating high volumes of wastewater which cannot be discharged without proper treatment. The complete oxidation of organic pollutants in such waste water remains a significant environmental issue. This research investigates different treatment methods like biodegradation and photo catalytic degradation to identify the most efficient and effective approach to treat cotton bandage textile wastewater. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) analysis was carried out to quantify and observe the amount of oxidizable pollutant in the waste water with different treatment methods. In photo catalytic degradation process different semi-conductor metal oxide nano particles like Titanium dioxide (TiO2), Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Bismuth Vanadium oxide (BiVO4) were used. Comparing the three nanoparticles; TiO2 proved to be the efficient one, which reduced the COD of the effluent significantly. For Biodegradation aerobic activated sludge was used to treat the cotton bandage textile waste water in along with mineral salt media. By comparing both photocatalytic degradation and biodegradation process, photo catalytic method was found to be efficient for treatment of organics in real cotton bandage processing effluent.