ABSTRACT
One of the environmental problems being faced by textile industry is the removal of colour from the dye wastewater prior to discharge to local sewage treatment facilities or adjoining water courses. During the past two decades, several physico-chemical methods like adsorption, chemical treatment and ion pair extractions were adopted and have been proved to be costly and less effective. Biological treatment methods are comparatively cheap and considered to be the best alternative with proper analysis and environmental control. With this in mind, an attempt was made to evaluate efficiency with mixed microbial cultures for the decolourisation of the dye wastewater in continuous mode operation. Laboratory scale models of anaerobic reactor, activated sludge process and sand filter were fabricated and operated in series. The activated bioclean was inoculated in the anaerobic reactor. The characteristics and treatability of the textile dye wastewater were analysed. The sample taken for the study was combined effluent collected from the equalization tank in Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), Tirupur. The experiments were conducted for different organic loading rates. Parameters such as colour, pH, COD, BOD, suspended solids, total dissolved solids, chlorides and sulphates for both the influent and effluent were evaluated. The removal efficiency of the anaerobic process, activated sludge process and sand filter for the above said parameters were studied.