Alternative solutions of industrial wastewater management in the textile industry

Abstract

The investigation of cost-effective water treatment methods and techniques is considered an extremely important and vital objective. The aim of this study is to reach the optimum solution for the treatment of the effluent industrial wastewater from the textile industry sector in Egypt. In this work, the treatment methods and techniques under consideration were selected as being feasible and appropriate to achieve the required goal effectively. Misr Beida Dyers Company (MBDC), located at Kafer El Dawar Alexandria Governorate, has been chosen for the study. The company discharges 10–12 millions of cubic meters of wastewater annually into Abu Qir Bay, thus it is considered one of the major sources of industrial pollution in this zone. In this work, the selected procedure is to compare between two different designs for the wastewater treatment plants, whereby three alternative solutions (interventions) were proposed for each design namely: end-pipe-treatment on raw wastewater, with pollution prevention (PP) and with cleaner production (CP). Evidently, the selection of the best design approach is based on economics. To achieve this objective, a suitable cost-benefit analysis tool (CBA) has been adopted. Finally, looking at benchmarking results, it was observed that the specific rate of consumed items (water, electricity, fuel, chemicals, etc.) is rather high when compared with the recognized international standards (IS) in this respect. The unexpected rise in the abovementioned items coupled with a notable decline in the production of the plant under consideration in the period from 1994 to 2004 poses a big question mark and needs a prompt answer from the responsible authorities.