INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 3, No 6, 2013

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4402

Reactor systems for the degradation of textile dyes

Padmanaban V.C, Sandra Jose, Catherine Rapheal
Centre for Biotechnology, MET’s School of Engineering, Mala, Thrissur, Kerala, India
gettosneham@gmail.com
doi: 10.6088/ijes.2013030600008

ABSTRACT

Textile dyes used in color imparting are often recalcitrant and carcinogenic in nature. The
release of dyes into the environment constitutes a small proportion of water pollution, and the
colored waste waters represent a serious environmental problem and a public health concern.
The major challenge of textile industries today is to find an effective solution for dye effluent
treatment which meets all the requirement of environmental protection. This review narrates
the use of bioreactors immobilized with bacteria, fungi and algae as the solution for the
degradation of textile dyes. The parameters considered with respect to dye decolorisation and
degradation in immobilized reactors were COD, HRL, HRT and BOD. It was found that
anaerobic fluidized bed reactor showed better performance followed by rotating drum
bioreactor (RDBR) and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor system (UASB). Algae
showed improved results with tubular photobioreactors. Hence immobilized bioreactors are
promising technology for dye decolorisation and degradation

Keywords: Hydraulic retention time, Biological oxygen demand, Chemical oxygen demand,
Hydraulic loading rate, Rotating drum bioreactor, Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor.

1. Introduction

The textile dyeing industry consumes large quantities of water and produces large volumes of
wastewater from different steps in the dyeing and finishing processes. Wastewater from
printing and dyeing units is often rich in color, containing residues of reactive dyes and
chemicals, and requires proper treatment before being released into the environment. The
main challenge for the textile industry today is to modify production methods, so they are
more eco-friendly at a competitive price, by using safer dyes and chemicals and by reducing
cost of effluent treatment/disposal. The wastewater from the dye house is generally multi-
colored. A total of 15% of the total world production of dyes is lost during the dyeing process
and is released as textile effluents. The dye effluent disposed into the land and river water
reduces the depth of penetration of sunlight into the water environment, which in turn
decreases photosynthetic activity and dissolved oxygen (DO). The adverse effects can spell
disaster for aquatic life and the soil. Many dyes contain organic compounds with functional
groups, such as carboxylic (–COOH), amine (–NH2), and azo (–N=N–) groups, so
treatment methods must be tailored to suit to the chemistry of the dyes. Therefore it is
necessary to find an effective method for waste water treatment to remove color from textile
effluents. Therefore there are three methods for treatment of colored materials, which
includes physical methods employing precipitation, adsorption and reverse osmosis, chemical
methods via oxidation and reduction and biological methods including anaerobic and aerobic
treatment. The disadvantage of precipitation methods is sludge formation (Amrit pal Toor et
al.,2006). The disadvantage of adsorption is that the adsorbent needs to be regularly
regenerated (Guillard et al.,2007). This is associated with additional costs and sometimes
with very time consuming procedures. Industries generally adding NaOCl in the final

Received on March 2013 Published on June 2013 1868

 Reactor systems for the degradation of textile dyes

polishing steps to remove effluent color from chlorinated by-products, which severely
damage the surface water and ecological environment (Herrmann J.M et al.,2007) . Hence it
is a great challenge for industry to find the effective solving technology meeting the
environmental protection requirement. To resolve these problems, the feasibility of applying
immobilized cell technology has gained increasing attention. Moreover selecting a suitable
reactor is thus crucial for improving the economy and efficiency of immobilized cell process.

Table 1: Comparison of different treatment methodologies (Tim Robinson et al.,2001)

Treatment Method Advantages Limitations
Physical Methods
1. Adsorption
a) Activated Effective removal of cationic, Expensive. 10-15% loss of the
carbon mordant and acid dyes. sorbent during reactivation.
b) Wood chips Good sorption capacity for acid Long retention times and huge
dyes due to their hardness. quantities are required.
c) Silica gel Effective for basic dye removal Possibility of side reactions.
2. Irradiation Effective oxidation at lab scale Requires a lot of dissolved
oxygen
Chemical Methods
a) Fenton's reagent Capable of decolorizing both Sludge generation
soluble and insoluble dyes.
b) Sodium hypo- Initiates and accelerates azo- Release of aromatic amines.
chloride. bond cleavage
c) Cucurbituril Good sorption capacity for High cost.
various dyes.
Biological methods
Single cell (Fungal, Good removal efficiency for low
Algal, and Bacterial) volumes and concentrations.
Very effective for specific
colorant removal
Advanced Oxidation Complete mineralization Cost intensive process
Process ensured.
a) Ozonation Applied in gaseous state: no Short half-life (20 min)
alteration of volume.
b) H2O2 and ozone No sludge is produced. Foul Highly expensive.
odours are greatly reduced.
c) H2O2 and Simple method. Very effective Relatively new method and
Sonication in integrated systems awaiting full scale application.

2. Degradation of textile dyes by bacterial cells in reactor

The successful application of anaerobic technology for the treatment of industrial

wastewaters depends on the development of high-rate bioreactors. These reactors achieve a
high reaction rate per unit reactor volume by retaining the biomass for long periods of time.
Using UASB a total of 67% COD and 95% color removal efficiencies were obtained in the
treatment of 100 mgl-1 of Reactive Black 5 (Sponza and Isik, 2002) whereas 75% color
removal was obtained in the treatment of reactive Red 141(O’Neill et al., 1999). With
anaerobic baffled reactor(ABR) it was observed that 250 mgl-1 of reactive Red 141 was

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 Reactor systems for the degradation of textile dyes

degraded with 90% COD removal in 24hrs (Bell and Buckley, 2004) while 58% COD and
85% color removal were obtained for various textile dyes with HRT (hydraulic retention
time) in 8h at a temperature of 30˚C(Kong and Wu, 2008). Decolorisation of 90% was
achieved for red RBN in fluidized bed reactor(FBR) at an initial concentration less than
2200mg/L under a continuous-flow condition, but the removal efficiency dropped
dramatically when the dye concentration was over 2200 mg l−1 .This may be because of some
toxic effect on the immobilized biomass(Jane-Yii Wu, Sz-Chwun John Hwang et al.,2005).
When environmental bacteria capable of degrading xenobiotic compounds were successfully
used and introduced into an existing biofilm within a rotating drum bioreactor (RDBR) a
sustainable 89% of the available COD was consumed at a hydraulic loading rate (HLR ) of
735 mgl-1 d-1 and was accompanied by a 96% loss in AO7 while 97% decolorisation was
observed with 50mgl-1 of Acid red 151 at an HLR of 288 mg l-1 d-1 (Michael F. Coughlina,
Brian K. Kinkle et al.,2002).

3. Degradation of textile dyes by fungus in reactor

Owing to the inherent short comings of conventional biological effluent dye treatment
processes, researchers have proposed diverse intriguing approaches that await practical
implementation. This study demonstrates the feasibility of fungi coupled with various reactor
systems. Stirred tank reactor system was found very effective for efficient treatment of textile
waste water containing sulphur black dye by the fungal strain Aspergillus terreus KN4.
Overall color, BOD and COD were removed by 84.53, 66.50 and 75.24% respectively with
50mgl-1 dye concentration and HRT of 24 h (Korrapati Narasimhulu and Y.Pydi Setty).
Aerobic Fluidized bed Reactor acclimatized with the fungal biomass consortium of Pleurotus
ostreatus MTCC No: 1804, Pleurotus sajor-caju MTCC No: 141, Tremetus versicolour
MTCC No: 138 and Tremetus hirsute MTCC No: 136 were found to be more efficient in
treating the textile dyeing effluent containing Drimarene Red X 6BN, Drimarene Blue X 3LR
CDG and Drimarene Yellow X4RN by achieving 95.2% of color removal and 89.4% COD
removal (K.Balaji and S.Poongothai 2012).Using up-flow column reactor(UFCR)
immobilized with Aspergillus niger SA1 decolorization of 94.26% of 10 mgl-1 of Dimarene
blue K2RL dye was obtained, however it reduced to 58.51% at 300mgl-1 of dye. On further
recycling decrease in decolorisation rate was observed, which might be due to desorption by
the immobilized fungus (Muhammad Faisal Siddiqui, Saadia Andleeb et al.,2009). Whereas
biodegradation and decolorization of Drimarene blue K2RL (anthraquinone) dye by a fungal
isolate Aspergillus flavus SA2 immobilized in fluidized bed bioreactor (FBR) system showed
biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and color removal
efficiency upto 85.57%, 84.70%, and 71.3%, respectively, with 50mg l−1 of initial dye
concentration and at HRT of 24 h (Saadia Andleeb & Naima Atiq et al.,2011).When
Phanerochaete chrysosporium was immobilized in a continuous packed bed bioreactor nearly
95% decolorisation of azo dye orange II was achieved at a high dye load rate of 0.2 g l−1 d−1,
a temperature of 37°C, a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h and applying oxygen gas in a
pulsed flow in pulsed packed bed reactor (Mielgo, M.T. Moreir, et al.,2001). Whereas 65-
85% decolorisation was obtained with Poly R-478 in pulsed bed reactor at its optimal
conditions. The optimal conditions established were the following: temperature of 37C, use
of oxygen, Mn2+ concentrations between 33 and 330 µM and exogenous H2O2 added in
periodical pulses (as chemical reagent, 1 µM or as H2O2 enzymatically generated by 0.6UL-1
glucose oxidase and residual glucose) At high Mn2+ concentration decolorisation had
negative effect(Mielgo, M.T. Moreir,et al.,2001). The suitability of the ALR (Air Lift
Reactor) for fermentation of white rot fungi Trametes pubescens established its potential to
provide a practical and cost-effective bioremediation process for the treatment of phenolic

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International Journal of Environmental Sciences Volume 3 No.6, 2013
 Reactor systems for the degradation of textile dyes

wastewater. The degradation results represent the highest rate of removal (0.033 g phenol.g
biomass-1.day-1) of phenolic compounds from water (Daniel R. Ryan, Winston D. Leukes,et
al.,2005).

4. Dye degradation in bioreactor using algae

Principles of fluid mechanics, gas–liquid mass transfer, and irradiance controlled algal
growth need to be considered for designing tubular photobioreactors in which the culture is
circulated by an airlift pump. These reactors integrated with algal biomass are nowadays used
for textile dye decolorisation and degradation. Tubular photobioreactors that circulate the
culture by using an airlift device are especially attractive for several reasons: circulation is
achieved without moving parts and this provides a robust culture system with a reduced
potential for contamination (Chisti,1989); the cell damage associated with mechanical
pumping is avoided (Chisti, 1999a; Vandanjon et al., 1999); and the airlift device combines
the function of a pump and a gas exchanger that removes the oxygen produced by
photosynthesis (Camacho Rubio et al., 1999). A 0.2 m3 photobioreactor designed using the
proposed approach was proved in continuous outdoor culture of the microalga
Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The culture performance was assessed under various conditions
of irradiance, dilution rates and liquid velocities through the tubular solar collector. A
biomass productivity of 1.90 g l-1 d-1 (or 32 g m−2 d−1) could be obtained at a dilution rate of
0.04 h−1. Photoinhibition was observed during hours of peak irradiance; the photosynthetic
activity of the cells recovered a few hours later. Linear liquid velocities of 0.50 and 0.35 m
s−1 in the solar collector gave similar biomass productivities, but the culture collapsed at
lower velocities. The effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on productivity was quantified
in indoor conditions; dissolved oxygen levels higher or lower than air saturation values
reduced productivity. Under outdoor conditions, for given levels of oxygen supersaturation,
the productivity decline was greater outdoors than indoors, suggesting that under intense
outdoor illumination photooxidation contributed to loss of productivity in comparison with
productivity loss due to oxygen inhibition alone. Dissolved oxygen values at the outlet of
solar collector tube were up to 400% of air saturation (E. Molina, J. Ferna´ndez et al., 2000).

5. Conclusion

So far various reactor systems employed for decolorisation and degradation of textile dyes
using bacteria, fungi and algae were dicussed. Out of these bioreactors some of them
employed with bacteria were UASB, ABR, FBR, and RDBR. It can be concluded that for the
treatment of various textile dyes rotating drum bioreactor (RDBR) (Michael F. Coughlina,
Brian K. Kinkle et al.,2002) proved to be the best choice followed by upflow anaerobic
sludge blank reactor (UASB) (Sponza and Isik, 2002). Reactors like stirred tank bioreactor,
aerobic fluidized bed reactor, upflow coloumn reactor (UFCR), fluidized bed reactor (FBR),
continuous packed bed bioreactor, pulsed packed bed bioreactor and air lift reactor were
immobilized with fungi. Dye decolorisation was found effective with aerobic fluidized bed
reactor (K.Balaji and S.Poongothai2012). Tubular photobioreactor is a good option for dye
decolorisation using algae (E. Molina, J. Ferna´ndez et al., 2000). From these it can be
concluded that the choice of reactor is based on the nature of organism and process of interest.

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