Investigating the Influence of Column Depth on the Treatment of Textile Wastewater Using Natural Zeolite.

Timoth Mkilima,Toghan Mashan,Nurgul Nurmukhanbetova,Ubaidulayeva Nurbala,Abdilda Meirbekov,Kulyash Meiramkulova,Mansur Khusainov,Lyazzat Tastanova,Amanbek Zandybay

doi:10.3390/molecules26227030

Abstract

Textile industry production processes generate one of the most highly polluted wastewaters in the world. Unfortunately, the field is also challenged by the availability of relatively cheap and highly effective technologies for wastewater purification. The application of natural zeolite as a depth filter offers an alternative and potential approach for textile wastewater treatment. The performance of a depth filter treatment system can be deeply affected by the column depth and the characteristics of the wastewater to be treated. Regrettably, the information on the potential of these filter materials for the purification of textile wastewater is still scarce. Therefore, this study investigated the potential applicability of natural zeolite in terms of column depth for the treatment of textile wastewater. From the analysis results, it was observed that the filtration efficiencies were relatively low (6.1 to 13.7%) for some parameters such as total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, chemical oxygen demand, and sodium chloride when the wastewater samples were subjected to the 0.5 m column depth. Relatively high efficiency of 82 and 93.8% was observed from color and total suspended solids, respectively, when the wastewater samples were subjected to the 0.5 m column depth. Generally, the 0.75 m column depth achieved removal efficiencies ranging from 52.3% to 97.5%, whereas the 1 m column depth achieved removal efficiencies ranging from 86.9% to 99.4%. The highest removal efficiency was achieved with a combination of total suspended solids and 1 m column depth (99.4%). In summary, the treatment approach was observed to be highly effective for the removal of total suspended solids, with a 93.8% removal efficiency when the wastewater was subjected to the 0.5 m column depth, 97.5% for 0.75 m column depth, and 99.4% for 1 m column depth. Moreover, up to 218.233 mg of color per g of the filter material was captured. The results derived in this study provide useful information towards the potential applicability of natural zeolite in the textile wastewater treatment field.

Highlights

The growing demand for textile products has led to an increase in textile industries, in the developing world
The phenomenon is likely linked to the fact that, in the production steps of the textile industry, caustic and other detergents of an alkaline nature are used in large quantities—a phenomenon that is reported in the study conducted by Patel et al [25] and Hussain et al [26]
The results indicated that the filtration process using natural zeolite was highly effective in removing the majority of the pollutants in the wastewater

Summary

Introduction

The growing demand for textile products has led to an increase in textile industries, in the developing world. The most evident impact of the textile production processes in the environment is the high consumption of water and wastewater discharge, whereby it is estimated that the processes generate approximately 115–175 kg of chemical oxygen demand (COD) per ton of finished product [1]. A large volume of water is required in this process, which results in the discharge of substantial amounts of dyeing effluent as wastewater [8]. Treatment of such highly polluted wastewater before discharge or any sort of reuse is of great importance to protecting human health and the environment in general

Methods

Results

Conclusion