title: Cotton-textile wastewater management: investigating different treatment methods.
abstract: The cotton-textile industry consumes significant amounts of water during manufacturing, creating high volumes of wastewater needing treatment. The organic-load concentration of cotton-textile wastewater is equivalent to a medium-strength municipal wastewater; the color of the water, however, remains a significant environmental issue. This research, in cooperation with a cotton-textile manufacturer, investigated different treatment methods and different combinations of methods to identify the most cost-effective approaches to treating textile wastewater. Although activated-sludge is economical, it can only be used as part of an integrated wastewater management system because it cannot decolorize wastewater. Coagulation/flocculation methods are able to decolorize cotton-wastewater; however, this process creates high amounts of wastewater solids, thus significantly increasing total treatment costs. Chemical oxidation is an environmentally friendly technique that can only be used as a polishing step because of high operating costs. Anaerobic digestion in a series of fixed-bed bioreactors with immobilized methanogens using acetic acid as a substrate and a pH-control agent followed by activated-sludge treatment was found to be the most cost-effective and environmentally safe cotton-textile wastewater management approach investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece. dgeorgiou66@yahoo.com
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Georgiou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aivasidis
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors; D032561:Cotton Fiber; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007220:Industrial Waste; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013783:Textile Industry; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D014873:Water Pollutants