Removal of color and COD from actual textile effluent by hybrid biosorption and ultrafiltration processes

Abstract

The present study was investigated to find the efficiency of a hybrid process of an ecofriendly dehydrated Moringa oleifera biosorbent beads (DMB) and ultrafiltration (UF) membrane to remove organic pollutants from actual textile effluents. Experiments were conducted with a packed bed column (PBC) for the removal of dyes using various parameters such as flow rate, material mass and size of the biosorbent. The optimized biosorption process was then combined with a dead-end UF process for the removal of chemical oxygen demand/biochemical oxygen demand (COD/BOD) and turbidity. Three strategies were adopted by varying the sequences of UF and PBC. PBC followed by the UF process appears to be more effective for the removal of color (>99%), COD (90–93%) and turbidity (>95%), when compared to UF followed by the PBC process and the UF membrane alone. The results suggested that the treated effluent could be reused in industries for various purposes such as floor cleaning, gardening, etc.