Electro-bioremediation strategies for sustainable and ecofriendly depollution of textile industrial wastewater

Abstract The charming Mother Earth is continuously being tainted with toxic and foreign chemicals that bring peril to the health of the ecosystem. The vibrant –H2O is effortlessly polluted by the infiltration of xenobiotic/toxic components in the water bodies from the industrial/domestic/agricultural runoff, leaving its impression on the environment for a longer span. The surface water pollution is a major environmental challenge in developing countries such as India. Among the industrial sources of water pollution, the textile industry stands sixth, contributing 9% of the total. As a basic entity, “clothing” has become part of a person’s identity, which is owed to the rapid development of fashion and textile industries. These industries are self-reliant within the entire value chain of fiber to fashion. In developing nations, such as India, these industries occupy an outstrip position in contributing to the gross domestic product to 5% and provides direct employment for 35 millions of people. The textile industrial activities are both water and chemical intensive in nature. The textile industries in Tirupur, a major textile knitting/dyeing city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, consume ~28.8 billion liters of groundwater annually for dyeing and generate 87 million liters of wastewater per day, resulting in groundwater depletion, deleterious effects in agriculture, and serious risks of irreparable damage to the ecosystem. The World Bank estimates that 17%–20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and finishing process.