Anaerobic treatment of textile effluents: A review

The treatment of textile waste water is commonly carried out using biologic al (mainly aerobic) and physico-chemical systems. However, anaerobic biorea ctors can be used to at least partially treat these effluents and provide a number of significant advantages. The most attractive feature for the trea tment of textile effluents is the decolourisation of many dyes under the re ducing conditions present in an anaerobic reactor. Laboratory-scale results on this particular topic are here reviewed. A second major advantage of an aerobic processing is its ability to treat wastestreams with high organic l oads such as the effluents from the desizing and scouring operations curren tly employed in the textile manufacturing industry. Reports on successful, full-scale and pilot-scale plants are also reviewed and some limitations ar e discussed. (C) 1998 Society of Chemical Industry.