Environmental Impact of Textile Wet Processing

By: Durganshu Arya & Pallavee Kohli

Abstract In the entire world today there has been a growing awareness of the damage caused to the environment by the indiscriminate use of chemicals, some of which are very toxic and carcinogenic. The textile industry is one of the most pollution creating industry in terms of high solid waste, high Biochemical Oxygen demand (BOD)/ Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) content in waste water, use of hazardous chemicals and dyes etc. Though air, water and noise pollution is created at every step of textile production, the most problematic is textile wet processing, in terms of vast quantity of water and good number of chemicals which are used in wet processing, and on completion of the process , residual dyes and chemicals together with water are discharged as effluents.

Introduction Environmental pollution is a term refers to all the methods by which people pollute their

environment. It is undesirable change in the physical ,chemical or biological characteristics of the environment ,which causes harmful effect . Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems faced formulated by the mankind. Certain laws and regulations need to be to stop

by the government which obligate the

manufacturer and individuals

or reduce certain polluting activities.

Toxic dyes and chemicals used in wet processing of textile goods which are coming in contact with the skin and causing a direct damage to the health like skin cancer, allergy etc. Therefore, an important step in the preparation of eco-friendly textile will be reduction of waste at source i.e. minimize the use of resources like water and substances that are exhausting. Thus, care has to be taken to eliminate/optimize use of unsafe chemicals / auxiliaries/ dyestuffs.

Although, definition of eco friendly textile is yet to be standardized, it is generally accepted that if the bio-degradability of effluent is more than 90%, the product will be eco-friendly.

Therefore, in order to adopt an eco-friendly textile process, the key areas of textile wet processing like pretreatments, dyeing, printing, finishing etc. the process should create minimum pollution load with a simultaneous minimum consumption of resources like water, power etc. and do not utilize any harmful/ hazardous/ carcinogenic chemicals.

The apparel & textile manufacturing has three stages of production spinning, weaving and chemical processing. In spinning there is application of anionic phosphate ester based antistatic lubricant which when mix in the water creates water pollution. In preparatory process of weaving we use starch as a sizing material which require high BOD value for their decomposition.

The textile chemical wet processing has no. of steps, which are pretreatments, dyeing, printing and finishing. In these entire treatments large amount and number of inorganic and organic chemicals are used, out of which some are highly pollutive and toxic.

The pollution load of different chemical processing treatments may be given as under, ( in ppm)

Scouring pH 10- 12

Bleaching 8.5 -11.0

Dyeing 9-11

TDS

12000- 30000

2500-11000

1500-4000

BOD

2500-3000

100-500

100-400

COD

10.000- 20,000

1200- 1600

4001400

Characteristics of composite effluent from cotton textile chemical processing plant may be given as (in ppm) pH Total alkalinity TDSBOD COD8- 9.1 500 - 800 2500- 3100 200-300 600- 800

Here there is list of problematic dyestuff which releases harmful amines which are allergenic and carcinogenic to human body : 4 amino diphenyl benzidine 4- Chloro o- toludine 2-Naphthylamine o-aminiazo toluene 2-Amino-4-nitro toloune

p- chloroaniline 2,4 Diaminoanisol 4,4 Diaminodiphenylmethane 3,3- Dichloro benzidine 3,3- Di ethoxy benzene 3,3- Di methoxy benzidine 3,3 Dimethyl-4,4 diaminodiphenylmethane p- Kresidine 4,4- Methylene bis-(2-chloraniline) 4,4-Oxydianiline 4,4 Thiodianiline O- Toluidine 2,4- Toluyendiamine 2,4,5 Tri methyl aniline

There are some chemicals which are either harmful OR banned and are still in use in textile chemical processing (1) Chlorine bleaches (2) Benzidine based dyestuff (3) Acetic acid (4) Starch based warp size ; ; ; Non carcinogenic dyes Formic acid Synthetic like PVA and acrylates Synthetic thickener like Polycarboxylic acids (6) Formaldehyde (7) Pentachlorophenol ; ; Polycarboxylic acid Benzothiazol

(5) Kerosene in pigment printing ;

There are some chemicals which are highly toxic and heavily used in Indian textile chemical processing industry and as per government rule they are to be phased out and these are: (1) Pentachloro phenol - used in preservative, fungiside antimicrobial. (2) Halogenic carriers - used as a swelling agent (3) Chlorine bleaching - used in cotton and synthetic fabric bleaching. (4) 1,2 Di chloro Ethane used as a solvent for fats and oils in stain removers (5) Carbon tetra chloride used as a solvent in scouring and stain removers (6) Pentachloro bi phenyl- used as plasticisers, carrier and flame retardant (7)1,1,1 Tri chloro ethane used as solvent and cleaning agent (8) Nonyl phenol ethoxylates used as a detergents surfactant ,emulsifying agent ,dispersing agent and

(9) Di butyl phthalates - used as plasticisers ,stiffening agent and textile lubricating agent . (10) Tris (2,3 dibromopropyl)-phosphate - used as flame retardant . (11) Triphenyl phosphate used as plasticisers , flame retardants

Besides these harmful chemicals there are several routine chemicals which are excessively used than the required quantity which produces heavy effluent. To reduce effluent load so to save the environment, we have to examine our existing chemical treatments. The optimization of process treatments, quantity of chemicals process parameters and correct sequence is inevitable.

About the Authors The authors; Durganshu Arya is the Senior Lecturer in Department Of Fashion Design at Pearl Academy of Fashion Jaipur and Pallavee Kohli is Senior Assistant Professor in Department of Textile Technology at International College for Girls, Jaipur, respectively.