Pretreatment of Textile Processing Wastewaters

In this paper, the pretreatment approaches in the textile processing industry are discussed and two case studies which have been carried out in two textile processing plants are delineated. Case studies include the phases of process and pollution profiles, treatability study, conceptual design and evaluation of one-year actual treatment plant performances. One of the treatment schemes applied was chemical coagulation while the other was activated sludge. Therefore a comparison of two main types of pretreatment has been realised. Results indicate that biological treatment is more efficient and reliable in terms of organic matter removal as compared to chemical coagulation. Comparisons of cost of initial investment, cost and ease of operation, and sludge production are also made and discussed.