Page 64 - Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation

52 Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation

4.15 CONCLUSION
In today’s world, the role of textile industry has become very significant.
From knitting the clothes and fabrics used for human consumption to the
extent of synthetic arteries and livers in medical textiles, the need of textile
industry is highly unavoidable. Textile industry is also a highly influential in-
dustrial sector and contributes highly toward the growth and development
of a country. In spite of these credits, textile industry is also contributing
significantly toward environmental pollution.
The textile industry, during its various stages of processing, consumes
number of chemicals and auxiliary chemicals for achieving the desired qual-
ity of the textile product. These chemicals are predominantly let out as
wastewater effluent which is highly toxic and hazardous to the environ-
ment. In addition, textile processing also leads to air and noise pollution.
However, the major source of environmental pollution from textile indus-
try is the amount of wastewater discharged with high chemical load. This
wastewater effluent must be treated suitably to reduce its harmful effect
on the environment. The textile wastewater effluent consists of chemicals
including chlorinated solvents, hydrocarbon solvents, oxygenated solvents,
oils, waste fabrics drenched in grease and oil, and dyestuffs and pigments.
These chemicals are used at various stages of textile manufacturing.
In order to reduce the harmful impact of textile wastewater on the envi-
ronment, the same must be treated by any other sustainable techniques. One
of such environmental-friendly possibility is to utilize the textile wastewater
as a source of renewable energy and producing energy out of the efflu-
ent. MFCs use industrial effluent as biodegradable substrates to convert
chemical energy to electrical energy. The microorganisms in MFC oxidize
the biodegradable substrates to produce electrons and protons. The flow of
electrons in MFC generates electricity which could be used for further ap-
plications. In this way, MFCs shall be utilized in producing electrical energy
from the textile wastewater effluent, thereby reducing or eliminating the
detrimental influence of textile effluent on to the environment.

REFERENCES

[1] Fletcher K. Sustainable fashion and textiles: design journeys. United Kingdom: Rout-
ledge; 2013.
[2] Karthik T, Gopalakrishnan D. Environmental analysis of textile value chain: an over-
view. In: Roadmap to sustainable textiles and clothing. Singapore: Springer; 2014. p.
153–88.