Supporting Improved Effluent

Treatment and Dye Practices

in the Textile Sector in
Bangladesh
Dr. Jerry Knapp,
School of Biochemistry and Microbiology,
University of Leeds,
Leeds, U.K.

Some common questions

Do we need an ETP?
How much will it cost?
Can we afford to do it?
What type of ETP should we have?
How much and what should we monitor?

Do we need an ETP?
The law says YES you do.
Textile effluents have to be treated in order to
meet the DoE standards.
Morally yes - damaging the environment
damages peoples lives and livelihoods
Financially yes - to get higher value business
from developed countries compliance with
environmental standards is required

Solution to Pollution
IS NOT DILUTION
How to eliminate pollution:1. Change processes to eliminate specific
pollutants e.g. thermal pollution
2. Change processes to reduce pollution in
general more right first time less pollution
3. Treatment

How much will it cost?

This will vary greatly according to
what type of ETP you choose and what
your production capacity is
who you buy it from
where the components of the ETP
are designed and manufactured
How good an effluent you want to produce
There is no single answer

How much will it cost?

ETP designers should be able to give you a
range of options for designs
They should give not only building costs but
operating costs
Effectiveness is not necessarily related to cost

Can we afford to do it?

Can you afford not to do it?
Operation of ETP should give access to
higher value markets
DoE are beginning to get tougher

What type of ETP should we have?

What is available locally?

What types of ETP are currently

used in Bangladesh textile
industry?
Physico-chemical only
Biological only
Both physico-chemical and biological

Will all types of ETP do the job

effectively?
Difficult to be sure since most factories do
not have enough analytical data to allow
certainty.
The following statements are based on my
understanding of what happens in the
treatment processes not on analytical
data.

The main environmental problems

caused by textile wastes are:
1. Decrease in dissolved oxygen of water
courses due to elevated BOD (organic
matter)
2. High pH often over 9 or 10
3. Presence of high levels of sulphide due
to conversion of sulphate in the effluent
under anoxic conditions
4. Colour

 The law demands that all of these are

controlled.
Can all of these be dealt with by ETPs?

Physico-chemical ETPs
Will reduce but not completely remove
BOD
Should greatly reduce Total Suspended
Solids
They should greatly reduce colour
They should provide adequate pH

Biological ETPs
Should greatly reduce BOD to a level that
meets the set standards
Should greatly reduce Total Suspended
Solids
Should produce a suitable pH
Will have very little effect on colour

Therefore!
Combined P-C plus biological is best
P-C alone is unlikely to meet BOD
standard
Biological alone will not meet colour
standard

Physico-chemical plus biological ETPs

Should greatly reduce BOD to a level that meets the
set standards
Should greatly reduced Total Suspended Solids
Should produce a suitable pH
They should greatly reduce colour
Should allow compliance with standards except total
dissolved solids.

Which type of biological ETP?

Two main types found in Bangladesh
Activated sludge
Submerged fixed film systems

ASPs use suspended microbial

growth

Influent

pH control and
equalisation

Aeration
and mixing

Activated sludge
aeration tank

Returned activated sludge

Effluent

Settled
sludge

Wasted activated sludge

Fixed films systems have microbes growing

as a film on the surface of a support material
the medium

Which is best?
Difficult to say in absence of enough
analytical data
In activated sludge plants settling of AS is
vital for an effective process
The settling process can cause problems

 In activated sludge plants settling of AS is

vital for an effective process
The settling process can cause problems
This is not an issue for fixed film systems

Do biological plants always need a

large amount of land?
Not necessarily?
Some more recent designs have a small
footprint
e.g.
- Submerged fixed film reactors
- Trickling filters with low density plastic
media

Costs
Physico-chemical plants are expensive in
running costs due to the high demand for
expensive chemicals.
P-C plants produce a lot of chemical
sludge
Is there scope for cost reduction?
Possibly if you can segregate strong and
week effluents from different parts of the
process.

 Strong effluent streams e.g. from scouring

bleaching and dyeing need to receive both P-C
and biological treatment
Weaker effluents may only need biological
treatment, but they do need treatment.
This should allow for savings in chemicals
But will involve costs in having separate effluent
lines and pumping systems.

How do we dispose of sludge from

P-C plant?
This is a common question - no easy
answer
Do not heap on land near to Khal and wait
for monsoon!
Land fill on or near factory site
Land fill site
Incineration? may cause more pollution
Brick making? may cause more pollution

Is P-C sludge dangerous?

Difficult to be sure, the dyes as such are of low toxicity,
as are the coagulants and flocculants
Some sludges have heavy metals from pre-metallised
dyes
These metal complexes are fairly stable
But, we have no information as to whether they
breakdown when sludge is buried
If sludge is buried we need to monitor soil for free metals
and determine whether plants growing on it have high
metal content.

How much and what should we

monitor?
As often as possible and as many
parameters as possible
BUT need to be realistic!!

 Enough to be sure that you meeting your

legal and moral obligations.
i.e. enough to show you are in
compliance with the limits on
discharges
Enough to be sure that your ETP is
working and to allow you to optimise its
performance.

What to analyse?
pH
BOD
COD
Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
Colour
Temperature

 All of these except BOD could be done in

reasonable lab such as those we have seen in
most dyeing works.
Or done by an independent analyst
BOD is a more difficult and probably needs a
more specialised laboratory
These should be done on the final effluent

How often?
Routine monitoring as often as possible
Minimum probably once a month

Other monitoring
You need to know how your plant is working and
how individual stages are performing
Need to analyse the waste water as it enters the
plant and then at different stages to show how
well each is working
Very few ETPs in Bangladesh do this
Without these data you will not know if the ETP
is working at all

Where to monitor?
For a typical ETP I would suggest

effluent from the equalisation tank;

effluent from the plant P-C settler (i.e.
after physico-chemical treatment);
effluent from bioreactor 1;
effluent from bioreactor 2;
the final effluent.

How often should we assess plant

performance?
When a plant starts operation, more
frequently maybe every two weeks
This needs doing until the performance
has stabilised
Routine monitoring of ETP performance
as often as possible probably once a
month

Any other
questions?