Development and operation of immobilized cell plug flow bioreactor (PFR) for treatment of textile industry effluent and evaluation of its working efficiency.

Abstract

The release of untreated/partially treated effluent and solid waste from textile dyeing industries, having un-reacted dyes, their hydrolysed products and high total dissolved solids (TDS) over the period of time had led to the deterioration of ecological niches. In an endeavour to develop a sustainable and effective alternative to conventional approaches, a plug flow reactor (PFR) having immobilized cells of consortium of three indigenous bacterial isolates was developed. The reactor was fed with effluent collected from the equalization tank of a textile processing unit located near city of Amritsar, Punjab (India). The PFR over a period of 3 months achieved 97.98 %, 82.22 %, 87.36%, 77.71% and 68.75% lowering of colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS) respectively. The comparison of the phytotoxicity and genotoxicity of untreated and PFR-treated output samples using plant and animal models indicated significant lowering of respective toxicity potential. This is a first report, as per best of our knowledge, regarding direct treatment of textile industry effluent without any pre-treatment and with minimal nutritional inputs, which can be easily integrated into already existing treatment plant. The successful implementation of this system will lower the cost of coagulants/flocculants and also lowering the sludge generation.