The industrial sector needs to pay special attention to wastewater management and keep it in control in order to reduce the harm it brings to the environment through its chemical wastes. Given the rapid development of industries, harmful pollutants/contaminants are fast getting discharged into the environment leading to serious environmentalrisksespecially water pollution is a major concern. Within the industrial sector, the textile industry is the most water-consuming industry and it generates a lot of wastewater too, given varied stages of production and manufacturing. Hence, it is mandatory to limit hazardous wastewater discharging from the textile or garment industry by setting up an effluent treatment plant (ETP).
What is an effluent treatment plant?
The effluent treatment plant is a set-up that works at various levels and involves various physical, chemical, biological, and membrane processes to treat wastewater from different industrial sectors like chemicals, drugs, pharmaceuticals, refineries, dairy, and ready mix plants & textile, etc. In simple words, the ETP structure is a type of wastewater treatment method, which is particularly designed to purify industrial waste water in order to initiate its reuse. Further, once treated the safe water is released back into theenvironment keeping it away from the harmful effects of the effluent.
Why is effluent such a headache?
The effluentscoming from wastewater contain various harmful materials, depending on the industry. Some effluents contain oils and grease, while others contain heavily toxic materials (e.g., cyanide). Further, effluents from food and beverage factories contain degradable organic pollutants. These effluents are harmful and extremely toxic too, so when they dissolve with drinking water and other water sources, they can lead to a lot of problems and cause health deterioration. So, keeping the diversity of impurities and harmful effluents in mind, it is essential to treat wastewater, in order to keep the problems at bay.
The long-term benefits of ETP are many, but some of the significant pointers to keep in mind are:
- With an ETP set-up for your garment company, you can ensure that the proceedings of the manufacturing setup are in compliance with environmental rules and regulations. This will allow you to tackle international orders with ease without having to worry about not being compliant with any laws.
- The setup allows you to recycle wastewater into clean and safe reusable water. This saves energy and the resource can be reutilized without any interruption.
- This setup is the best way to reduce waste from your establishment/premises and is beneficial to the environment by removing unsafe pollutants/contaminants. Moreover, it helps save a lot of resources and money in the long term too.
Setting up the effluent treatment plant for the textile industry:
ETP or Effluent Treatment Plant is a very advanced treatment system, which is designed to treat effluent or waste generated from various establishments within the textile industry and other industries. The various components that you need to include in your ETP setup will depend on the characteristics of the effluent i.e. depending on the type, quality, and quantity of the effluent that has to be processed, there are different types of ETPs available, which can be used to treat the wastewater, efficiently.
Steps of ETP and what it involves:
Coordinate with an expert to plan
So, when putting up the setup, it is important to talk to the right experts and put in place a system of ETP that through these four levels helps process your wastewater properly so that you can extract the residual water free of pollutants for reuse.
Wastewater collection
To start with, untreated textile wastewater from different sections of the factory or warehouse is accumulated in one place. This water consists of high levels of TSS, dyes, chemicals & auxiliaries, metal toxicants, and BOD that must be treated before they are discharged into the environment. Depending on the waste contained in the water, the ETP filtration chemicals are decided. So, when wastewater passes through the ETP, pollutants are removed and the quality of the water is improved to an acceptance/standard level, allowing for final discharge to the environment without any risk. Predominantly, an effluent treatment plant consists of four levels of treatment which undergo in sequence.
Preliminary
During the pre-treatment stage which involves a physical mechanism to treat wastewater the wastewater is screened using bar screens to remove large solids like pieces of rags, fabric, yarn, lint, sticks, etc. that may cause damage to the equipment of the plant.
Primary / Treatment of wastewater
Further, the wastewater is treated using a chemical mechanism, and at this stage, the wastewater enters the primary tank. Here it stays for a long time and as a result, heavier particles settle to the bottom and lighter particles float on the surface. In this treatment settled and floatable materials are eliminated by using the flocculation and coagulation process and then it is passed to secondary or biological treatment.
Secondary / Particle removal process
As a next step, the wastewater enters the secondary tank that is free from physical particles and it involves a biological mechanism. Most of the ETPs use biological treatment which involves aerated lagoons, activated sludge process, trickling filter, and oxidation pond for the removal of BOD but the activated sludge process is the most versatile biological oxidation method employed for the treatment of wastewater. Here, about 80% of organic waste will be removed and then subjected to tertiary treatment.
Tertiary / Final residual removal process
As the last step, involves physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms to remove residual suspended solids, dissolved solids and etc., that are not removed in the preceding treatment levels. Depending on the wastewater condition, several disinfection agents like chlorine, ozone, and UV light are used in most common. Wastewater after this treatment is finally fit for disposal or for further use.
To be compliant with the environmental norms and stay steady with the prevailing rules, it is important to discard the wastewater from your setup, properly and reuse it using the ETP setup. To get active and steady on this front, get started right now and say no to environmental harm.
