Degradation of residual dyes in textile wastewater by ozone: Comparison between mixed and bubble column reactors

Abstract

A noticeable amount of dyes may remain in the wastewater downstream of dyeing facilities giving anaesthetic colourations as well as environmental concerns. Conventional biological treatment alone cannot guarantee a sufficient decolouration and tertiary treatments have to be necessarily considered. Two oxidation schemes by ozone were considered in this work. A bubble column reactor (as a benchmark, in agreement with industrial applications) and a recycle well‐mixed reactor were compared to reach the highest decolouration of standard dyes. In addition, hydrodynamic and ultrasonic cavitation were considered in the recycled well‐mixed reactor to intensify its performance. The decolouration analysis was carried out for two dye classes (reactive and disperse), characterized by very different physical and chemical features. It appeared that some benefit was brought by ultrasound cavitation in the case of disperse dye only, while the degradation of the reactive dye was not intensified by the above hydraulic phenomenon. Ozone treatment was protracted to obtain different decolouration degrees of wastewater generated by wool dyeing. The resulting water was tested as a recycled process fluid to prepare fresh dyeing liquors, where devising the minimum decolouration degree became one of the quality specifications for recycling water back to dyeing.