Treatment of textile mill effluent using low molecular weight crab shell chitosan

Abstract

Inexpensive and eco-friendly biosorbent crab shell chitosan has been successfully used for the treatment of textile mill effluent. The present study investigated the application of low molecular weight (20 kDa) crab shell chitosan in the treatment of textile industry effluent in a most efficient and economical way. A series of batch experiments were conducted by varying solution pH, agitation time, chitosan dosage, and agitation speed. The parameters considered for the study are chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), and turbidity. The observed experimental result showed that low molecular weight crab shell chitosan could able to reduce significantly the COD, TSS, TDS, and turbidity from textile mill effluent. The optimum conditions were obtained at 150 mg/L of chitosan dosage, pH 4, 4 h of mixing time, and a mixing speed of 75 RPM. The results show that low molecular weight crab shell chitosan can be used for the effective treatment of textile mill effluent.