Supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), students from Bursa Technical University (BTU) introduced a project that offers a natural solution to Bursa's textile wastewater problem with biodegradable materials obtained from algae and sugar beet pulp.
The project, supervised by the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) member Derya Ünlü, will be an important alternative in textile wastewater treatment. "The industrial production of textiles is a long and complex process where natural or man-made fibers are converted into yarn and fabrics. The increasing rise of hazardous dye wastewater generated by various industries continues to be a serious public health issue and a huge environmental concern, posing a significant challenge to the existing conventional water treatment facilities," said Ünlü.
"The fact that Bursa is an important textile center floods the city with dye residue, one of the most important environmental problems of the textile industry," said Ünlü. With the project, which received TÜBİTAK 2209-A support, wastewater containing methylene blue dye will be recycled.
Explaining the wastewater treatment process, Ünlü said: "Nearly all kinds of commercial and industrial wastewater have bio-degradable constituents. Biological treatment can be classified as aerobic, anaerobic or anoxic. The most prevalent treatment for textile wastewater is biological treatment. Textile wastewater treatment has frequently relied on anaerobic methods including a consortium of microorganisms (anaerobic sludge or biofilm) as active agents. It has benefits over aerobic processes in that they can take higher organic loads, do not require aeration, and produce less sludge. Anaerobic treatment is used to decompose sewage sludge. The efficiency of this process is affected by pH, temperature, waste load, oxygen deficiency and hazardous compounds."
"The depletion of our water resources and the fact that we are faced with the problem of dehydration, necessitate the reuse of wastewater in the process, especially by treating wastewater released from industries that is typically 200-350 cubic meters per ton of product. Hence, it is of great priority that this wastewater is treated and recycled with environmentally friendly processes. For this purpose, we planned to develop a bio-based adsorbent to remove dyestuffs. Biodegradable polymer sodium alginate obtained from algae and bio-adsorbent will be synthesized using sugar beet pulp, and thus an innovative material will be developed," explained Ünlü.
Bursa Technical University Chemical Engineering Department third year students Dilara Doğancı, Deren Öner and Tuğçe Selvi are among the students working on this project.