R. GUNASEKARAN AND S. KANMANI
Abstract
Textile industry is the oldest and largest industry. Effluent generated from the industry is in enormous quantity. It contains pH more than 7 due to the addition of caustic soda in the process, high TDS due to the addition of salts for fixation, high COD due to the addition of chemicals and fixing agents, high BOD due to the addition of starch, gum, high chloride content due to the addition of salts and colour due to the addition of dyestuffs. Effluent containing above parameters will be obnoxious, toxic to the water bodies. Before disposal into the water bodies it should be treated. Existing treatments are not adequate to remove the colour and reduction of COD. Also, some treatments require large area, more investment of money and generation of sludge, which is a major problem for disposal. Hence, the textile industries in Erode have adopted the treatment by the gas Chlorine. The rate of reaction for Chlorine with textile dye effluent on colour removal was behaved in first order with regression coefficient ranged from 0.83 to 0.999 and kinetic rate constant ranged from 0.081/min to 0.721/min.The percentage of colour removal was 41 to 95. The percentage of COD degradation was 22 to 58.