PIL: S0043-1354(96)00318-1 Wat Ret. NO 31 No.4, 9. 86-876 1997 All phe rset. Printed in Gest Brin ‘a iisag7 $1700 000 TREATMENT OF TEXTILE WASTEWATER BY CHEMICAL METHODS FOR REUSE SHENG H. LIN*® end MING L. CHEN Department of Chemical Engineering, Yuan Ze Institute of Technology, Nelli, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan, Roc rs received November 1995: accepted in revised form September 1996) Abstraet—Treatment of wastewater efluent from the secondary wastewater treatment plant of dyeing {and fishing mil i vestigated for possible reuse, The treatment ssstem employed inthe present study onsists of an electrochemical method. chemical coagulation and ton exchange. The electrochemical ‘method and chemical coagulation are intended primsily to remove color, turbidity (NTU) and COD concentration of the wastewater eluent while ton exchange is employed to further lower the COD onceatration and reduce Fe ion concentration, condvetvity and toll hardness of the wastewater, To tenhanee the ecieney of electrochemical method, addition of a small amount of hydrogen peroxide is ound to be highly beneicl, Experimental results throughout the preset study have indicated thatthe combined chemical treatment methods are very effective and ate capable of elevating the water Guaity of the teated waste eluent to the reuse standard of the textile industry. «) 1997 Elevier Science Ltd All igs reserved Key words—textile wastewater, reuse, eletrochemicl IyrRoDUCTION ‘The textile industry is one of those industries that ‘consume considerable amounts of water in the manufacturing process. The water is primarily employed in the dyeing and finishing operations in which the cloths are dyed and processed to finished products. In a typical dyeing and finishing mill, about 100 of water are consumed on the average for every ton of cloths processed (Internal Technical Report 1994), The water employed in the dyeing and finishing processes eventually ends up as wastewater Which needs to be treated before final discharge. Normal textile dyeing and finishing operations are such that the dyestufs used in a mill can vary from dday to day and sometimes even several times a day mainly because of the batchwise nature of the dyeing process. Frequent changes of dyestufT employed in the dyeing process eause considerable variation in the wastewater characteristics, particularly the pH, color and wastewater COD concentration (Guroham, 1965). Large pH swing is especially troublesome because the pH tolerance of conventional biological and chemical treatment systems is very limited, Hence without proper pH adjustment, normal operation of the treatment processes is essentially impossible Strong color is another important component of the textile wastewater which is very difficult to deal with. Combination of strong color and high dissolved solid content results in high turbidity of the waste ‘Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed, 868 1 method, chemical coagulation, ion exchange effluent. The dyestuffs are highly structured polymers and are very difficult to decompose biologically Hence there is relatively litle change ofthese dyestuit molecules in an activated sludge process (Gurnbae, 1965). A strong color ofthe wastewater effluent, ifnot removed, would cause disturbance to the ecological system of the receiving waters. Color removal by activated carbon, hydrogen peroxide (H,O:), sodium hyperchlorite (NaCIO) and other chemical agents has Deen widely practised in the textile industries (Gurnham, 1965; Snider and Porter, 1974; McKay, 1984, 1990; Paprowicz and Slodczyk, 1988; Kuo, 1992; Lin and Peng, 1995). However, the cost of polishing operation using these chemicals is high. zonation isa new technique that has been suggested in the recent literature as a potential alternative for decolorization purpose (Beszedits, 1980; Green and Sokol, 1985; Gould and Groff, 1987; Lin and Lin, 1993; Lin and Liu, 1994a, by Traditional activated sludge and chemical methods (such as chemical coagulation and decolorization) hhave been widely used for dealing with the textile wastewaters (Gummham, 1965), These methods are intended to treat the texile wastewater to a level that meets the discharge standards required by the government. However, due to dwindling water supplies and increasing demand of the textile industries, a better alternative is to attempt to further elevate the water quality of wastewater effluent from a secondary wastewater treatment plant to a higher standard for reuse. Thus far, very litle attention has been paid to this aspect. The present study represents,“Tesile wastewater treatment for reuse 369 “Table | Water gusty change fer various wetment steps ‘Origins! Elstrocemical “Chemical ton ——Rewe wanna Prosar comgulstion exchange _standant Comer oy 32 302 5 1 Cob removal) m9 = = = Nw 3 09 eee Conductivity a0 20 on ow Color removal (6) = 73 Hardness!) = te “20 ‘kali (mgt) 340 M8 2 FeCone mel") O28 bas das Tos imat seid 90 eee Tl sSimet"> tha ° ° a0 ‘Note: Condacvigy po em ‘an attempt to utilize electrochemical methods in conjunction with chemical coagulation and ion exchange to treat wastewater effluent from. the secondary wastewater treatment plant of a large dyeing and finishing mill. The water quality is enhanced to a level that meets the reuse standaeds of the industry. Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of various operating conditions on the water quality after treatment To test the efficiency of each treatment unit ‘employed in the present study, sample wastewater ‘was obtained from a large dyeing and finishing mill in northern Taiwan, Currently, the mill purchases (60% of water it needs daily from the city water supply ‘and the rest is obtained from groundwater. The ‘groundwater is softened first using slacked lime, followed by filtering through a fine sand filter. It is then mixed with the city water supply. The water is. finally passed through an anionic ion exchange bed to lower inorganic ion concentrations before it i used in the dyeing and finishing processes. According to the Technical Report, 1994), water employed in the processes should be totally free from any color and suspended solids (SS). Its conductivity must be kept below 100 mho em”! and COD concentration below 10mg". The Fe ion concentration is maintained below 0.05 mg I-' and the total hardness less than 10mg. The water quality requirements are listed in the last column in Table 1 (Internal Technical Report, 1994) ‘The preset experimental investigation consisted of three major parts: electrochemical treatment, chemical coagu Tation and ion exchange. The three weaiment units ean be operated. independently ina batchwise fashion or in ‘combined seguence. Ta the combined treatment mode, the wastewater fluent was rst fed (othe electrochemical unit ‘The eluent was then chemically treated using appropriate amounts of polyaluminum chloride (PAC) and polymer. ‘Aller sedimentation, the wastewater effuent was finally treated by lon exchange. The electrochemical experimental apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. Two pais of anodic and ‘cathodic electrodes steel pate) are situated approximately furent practes. of thee indwstnes (nteral Sem apart fo eat cer od ae ped te ee 2 1 3 Ss) [ie xO : oan $536 1. D.C Power Supply 2 Digital Ammer : 2. Power Integrator 4) o£ 4. Peale Graphite Anodes 5: Paral! Titanium Dowie Cathodes LEC 6 Magnetic Baier 8 2. Sampling Valve 8 ElectroiyticCell oe £ a 9, Digital Magri String Contrler Ho). Pm Fig. 1. Experimental setup of electrochemical process470 wastewater, The total effective surface area of electrodes was 22.6¢m* The current input wes controlled by an ammeter land the total power consumption was integrated and registered by a power integrator. cach run, approximately Tf sample wastewater was placed in the electrolytic cl, In many’ test runs, small amount of hydrogen peroxide (H40.) as added’ to. the ectolytic cll before the ‘lctrachemvel (eatmnent was started. Addition of H.O: was found. to be highly beneficial Tor the present lectrochemicil process will be elaborate in detail later. ‘During the clectrochemical treatment of wastewater ‘fluent, a small amount of ito was dissolved into the Srastewater from the steel electrodes. The dissolved ston ‘shen combined with OH or CI- would form many small flocs during the electrochemical process which are very dificult to sete out of wastewater because of thir smal sizes. Ths phenomenon was observed very frequently inthe present study. The presence of small floss in wastewater ‘would interfere with the measurements of COD concen- tration, NTU and color removal. To overcome the foe Settling problem. all samples were centrifuged for $ min ‘before the measurement was undertaken, fn many ts uns chemical coagulation was adopted after the electrocemical treatment to determine ts effect on the treatment efficiency Chemical coagulation employing. 100 mgI"* of po minum ehoride (PAC) and I mg -! of polymer was found to be rather elective and the effect of chemical coagulation wl be further elaborated later. ‘AS mentioned earlier, the sample wastewater for the preset study was obtained from the discharge effuent of the wastewater teatment plant of a large dyeing. and Finishing ml. The sample wastewater was fis ilered using a scteen filler (0 remove large suspended solids before the Ueastewater was used forthe subsequent experiment. The inal pH of wastewater efllent inthe electrolytic cll was adjusted to around 3 except for those cases noted. The present electrochemical treatment proceeded very rapidly because of low COD concentration (below 200 mg) of the wastewater effluent, Bence the treatment duration vas limited to within 10 min. The COD concentration, NTU and total hardness of wastewater samples were determined by the standard methods (APHA. 1992). Its color was reatred using a GBC 916 UV-Vis spsctophotometcr (GBC ‘Scientiic Equipment, Lid, Victor, Austelia) and the conductivity measured by Sunter conductivity meter (Guntex SC-12, Sunter Industrial Co. Taiwan). The UV. absorbances of wastewater sample before and afier each {Heatment were registered fr determining the cole removal ‘The Fe ion concentration was measured using & GBC 932 atomic absorption spectrophotometer (GBC Scientific Equipment, Ltd, Vctona, Australia. Other inorganic fons were determined by an jon chromatography (Dionex 2000, Dionex Corp.. California, USA). It should be noted that except Tor the cases with onsequent chemical coagulation, all. samples for the cectrochemieal treatment were centrifuged before they were analyzed. This was a precautionary step to prevent the interference of small Suspended les wth the water quality measurements, “The fon exchange resins employed here were the H-type ‘Ambersep 132 and OFstype Ambersep $00 (both obtained from Rohm and Haas, Ine. Pennsylvania, USA). They were, respectively, strong acid cationic and strong base Bhionic ion exchange resins. The ion exchange resins needed te be pretreated before they were used in the experiments “They were fst washed several times using deionized water. “The resins were then immersed in Ketone (normal type) 10 femove chemical impurities. They were washed using ‘bexane. The resins were finally dried in an oven for over That 70°C and were put in a desiccator, ‘The ion exchange experiments were conducted in batchwise fashion. After the electrochemical treatment was completed, the pH of wastewater wae adjusted to about 7 and the wastewater filtered using a glasswoo! fiter to S.H. Lin and M. L. Chen An. t Removal % wry v . Inia pH Fig. 2. COD and color removal and NTU as 4 function of the initial wastewater pH with 25 A current, 200 mg! HO: and $ min eeetcochemical treatment, remove all suspended solids so a5 to not cause interference With the jon exchange treatment process. If ehemic ‘Sugalation was employed after electochemical treatment. ‘atural sedimentation wa suficient for removing flocs fom trastewater. Ono Wer of this wastewater effluent after Sedimentation was put ina beaker and 20 g1~of the H-type find gi" ofthe OH-iype Ambersep ion exchange reins ‘were added. The content in the Beaker was maintained at & Constant temperature nd well mixed by a mixer at 300 pm {o minimize the external mass transfer resistance. Samples swore taken periodialy for measurements of COD onecentrtion, NTU, color. conductivity and Fe on "The secondary wastewater treatment plant ofthe dying and finishing mil, rom where the wastewater sample forthe present study was oblained, employed pH equslization ‘hemical coagulation, ativated sludge, decolonization and postbiofitaton steps in the treatment process. The COD concentration of the waslonatereffuent from the waste ‘water treatment plan was consistently below 200 mg and the transparency was above 20 em with SS below 10mg] ‘These water quality parameters were significantly bet than the discharge standards required by the government for the texte industry. However, the wastewater effluent was sil faintly colored and the conductivity rather high, being ‘over 4500 ymbo em”, This high conductivity was caused by the fact that NaOH, ther inorganic compounds and Surfactants were used in vanous steps of the dyeing and Finishing process. Although the majority of sodium bnydronide was recovered for reuse, a significant amount of [NAOH and other inorganic compounds stil remained inthe wastewater The conductivity of teated wastewater needs to bbe reduced by ion exchange to meet the reuse requirement. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ‘The initial pH of wastewater effluent is an important operating factor influencing the perform- ance characteristics of electrochemical process, To demonstrate it effect on the treatment efficiency, the 1H of wastewater effluent was adjusted to between 2 ‘and 9. Figure 2 shows the final percent COD and color removal and the NTU change of wastewater after clectrochemical treatment for Smin as a function of the intial pH. It is apparent that there ‘exists an optimal pH around 3. Deviation from pH