Integrated membrane solutions for green textile industries

Textile industry utilizes thousands of tons of various chemicals for wet and dry processing. Effluents from wet processing, for instance, are characterized by the presence of coloring, hazardous and toxic pollutants. Numerous studies indicated several opportunities for membrane based interventions for reuse/recovery of water and chemicals. This work is concerned with the proposal of a hybrid treatment–recycling approach for decision making in the textile industry. This approach comprises the segregation of wastewater streams and the selection of the treatment–recycling scheme on the basis of reported performance data and updated cost indicators using a program tailored for this purpose. The program is validated for several scenarios representing typical actual scenarios from the textile industry. Results indicate that the use of membrane systems within the treatment–recycling scheme reduces the wastewater treatment cost through the recovery of chemicals and water. Further, the developed program proved to be sound software for decision making in the textile industry.